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PICTURESQUE EUROPE 



CONTAINING 



Famous Tours and Scenes in the 
Old World 

WITH 

GLOWING DESCRIPTIONS OF BEAUTIFUL FRANCE, GREAT 

BRITAIN AND IRELAND, SUNNY ITALY, CLASSIC 

GREECE, TRAVELS IN SPAIN, SWITZERLAND 

AND THE FAR FAMED ALPS, QUAINT 

OLD HOLLAND, THE GREAT 

DOMINION OF THE 

CZAR, ETC. 

TOGETHER WITH 

THE WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY 

THE WHOLE COMPRISING 

A VAST TREASURY OF THE MOST INTERESTING AND 
VALUABLE INFORMATION 

BY 

CHESTER R. STRATTON 

The "Well Known Author and Traveller 



Embellished with 100 Fine Engravings of Striking Scenes 

Illustrating the Manners and Customs of the 

People, Etc. Etc. 



/v ATIONAL PUBLISHTNG Cd 
NO, 241 American StreeTj 

^'aiLALEJUPHIA, PA. 






ENTERED ACC0RDIN3 TO ACT Or CONGREiS IN THE YEAH 1910, BY 
GEO. W. BERTRON 
:N TH= office OF THE LIBRARUN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, D. C, U. S. A. 



(g;Ci.A359436 



PREFACE. 



THIS great work combines a vast amount of interesting 
and valuable information with fascinating descriptions 
of scenes in the Old World. To open it is to see at once its 
worth, and even a hasty glance will prove it is a work 
that should be found in every home. 

It embraces all that is striking and novel in the 
various countries of Europe. The amazing Discoveries of 
our great travellers, with the exciting Explorations, daring 
deeds and perilous adventures by which their marvelous 
successes were won are here related and illustrated with 
attractive engravings. 

Thousands cross the ocean yearly to view the remark- 
able sights of Great Britain and the Continent. This book 
places these before the reader in the most attractive form. 
He visits the far-famed Alps, the vast dominion of the 
Czar, the dykes and towns of quaint old Holland, all inter- 
esting localities in Eastern Europe, in sunny France, in 
beautiful Italy, in the German Fatherland, in Spain, Great 
Britain and Ireland. 

The aim has been to furnish a description of the coun- 
tries and the peojjles of Europe, which is free from dull 
statements and dry, technical terms, which is fascinating 
to old and young alike, and by the vivid portrayal of facts 
surpass in interest the creations of romance. This aim we 

believe is fully realized. 

Chester R. Stratton. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER L 

FASCINATING SCENES IN FRANCE. 

Extent and Situation of the Country — Mountains and Lowlands — Former Haunts 
of Wolf, Boar and Deer — Fine Climate — What France Exports — Splendid 
Paris — River Seine and Bridges — Palaces in the Heart of the City — Magnifi- 
cent Gardens — Heroes, Nymphs and Fauns — A Celebrity and his Nosegay — 
Favorite Resort of Napoleon HI — Celebrated Cathedral — "A Book in Stone" 
— Gigantic Proportions and Superb Symmetry — " Gamins " of Modern Paris — 
Songs in a Hidden Gallery — Rich Decorations — Women Elegantly Dressed — A 
Historic Edifice — Grand Sight — Scene of Coronation and Royal Marriage — 
Palace and Gardens of Versailles — Once a Magnificent Home of Royalty — 
Renowned Personages — Startling Scenes in Earlier Days — Ancient Churches — 
Palace of Fontainebleau — Place Wliere the Great -Napoleon Signed his 
Abdication 17 

CHAPTER H. 

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

The Largest City in the World— Extent of London— Square Miles— Population- 
Part called " The City " — Very Ancient Town — Principal Buildings, Streets 
and Objects of Interest — The Celebrated Westminster Abbey — Founded by 
Edward the Confessor — Description of the World's Most Famous Religious 
Edifice — Edward's Chapel — Tombs of Monarchs — Poets' Corner — Beautiful 
Windows of Colored Glass — Antiquity and Threatened Ruin — The Thames 
Embankment — Cathedral of Saint Paul— Lofty Dome— Unique Whispering 
Gallery — Celebrities Buried in the Crypt — Houses of Parliament — Story of the 
Gunpowder Plot — The Queen Opening Parliament — Description of Her 
Majesty in State Robes — Edinburgh — Calton Hill — Princess Street — Scott's 
]\lonument — Old Castle — Holyrood Palace — Romance of History — Trip Through 
Ireland — History of the Irish — Characteristics of the Celt — Fine Scenery in 
Ireland — Lakes of Killarncy — Irish Towns — Belfast and Dublin 31 

CHAPTER IH. 

SUNNY ITALY. 

Land of History and Romance— Going to Italy to Abuse Italians— Peculiar Traits 
of the People— City of Naples— Noise and Clatter— Spendthrifts and Plun- 
derers — Much Pleasure and Little Business — Recent Waking-up of Industries — 
Retailers of Drolleries — Puppet Shows — Fishermen of Naples — The Poor 
Helping the Poor— Beautiful Venice— The Queen City— Magnificent Town- 
Speculators and Gamblers — Carnivals and Gorgeous Illuminations— Renowned 
Old Churches— Splendid Works of Art— Story of " The Brides of Venice "— 
Places Associated with Celebrities — Galileo and Titian — Lovely Italian Scenery 

V 



vi CONTENTS. 

—Beautiful Lakes — Description of Four Famous Lakes — A Captivating Land- 
scape — A Winter Climate — " Biting Frost " — Balm of Summer — Orange Groves 
and Semi-Tropical Fruits — Silk — Cattle — Minerals — Pasture Lands 50 

CHAPTER IV. 

PICTURESQUE VIEWS IN GREECE. 

Ancient Greek Empire — Physical Characteristics of the People — Fine Heads and 
Features — Domestic Cheerfulness and Frugality— Greek Women — Styles of 
Dress — Every Man Claims You for a " Brother " — Renowned Corinth — The 
Ancient City— Commercial Importance — Worship of Venus — Immoral Prac- 
tices — Old Roman Relics — The Isthmian Games — Classic Athens — Celebrated 
Acropolis — Imposing Rock — Costumes of Athenians — Red Waistcoats and 
Calico Trousers— Handsome Men — Public Buildings — Attractive Garden — 
Greek House of Parliament — Passion of the Athenians for Politics — Curious 
Bazaar — Funeral Customs Among the Greeks 67 

CHx\PTER V. 

■ TRAVELS IN SPAIN. 

Origin of the Spanish Race — Mountains of Spain — Variety of Precious Metals — 
Climate — Fondness for Show — Carrying Arms — Personal Pride and Courage — 
A Famous Palace — Philip II. and his Passion for Building — Burial Place for 
Kings — A Majestic Structure — Beautiful Chapel — Curious Stories about Relics 
— French Spoliation — -Madrid — Places of Amusement — ^The Spaniard's Fond- 
ness for Tragedy and Blood — The Madrid Bull-Ring — Vast Assemblages to 
See a Bull-Fight — A Shocking Spectacle — Torturing the Beast — The Final 
Spear-Thrust — Sights in the Streets of Madrid — Lazy Smokers — Water and 
Cake Vender— Rock of Gibraltar— Impregnable Fortress — Key to the Medi- 
terranean — Steep Sides and Strong Defenses— Ancient Contests for the Strong- 
hold — Held by the British for Nearly Two Hundred Years 79 

CHAPTER VI. 

EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS. 

Switzerland — The Gem of Picturesque Europe — Land of Mountains, Glaciers and 
Perpetual Snow — Agricultural and Industrial Products — Enthusiastic Tourists 
— Climbing a Lofty Summit — Steep Ascent — Adventures on the Return — 
Daring Guide — Reynaud and His Knapsack — On the Brink of a Chasm — 
Preparing to Jump — Bold Leap Over the Edge — Reynaud Flying Head First 
Through the Air — Bravery of Alpine Guides — Hard Mountain to Climb — 
Perilous Scramble Aross an Ice Bridge — Struck by a Hurricane — Terrible 
Cold — The Famous Matterhorn — Historic Incident — On the Giddy Peak — 
Making Merry — A Guide's Suggestive Remark — Lashed Together with a Rope 
— A Fall of 4000 Feet — Horrible Death — Search for Bodies — Ominous Vision 
in the Sky — Mont Cenis — Famous Road and Railway — Climbing a Mountain by 
Steam — Curious Mechanical Contrivance — The Third Rail — Simplon Pass — 
Avalanches and Death — The Hospice — Startling Adventures in Snow and Ice — 
A Timely Rescue — Scene of Mountain Grandeur 89 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAPTER VII. 

A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 

States Bordering the Adriatic— Inhabitants of the " Black Mountain "—Poor Coun- 
try—War Considered a Pastime— Rude Hospitality of the Montenegrins- 
Hunting — Dearth of Soap — Justice Administered Firmly — State Criminals — 
Marriages and Divorces — The Morlacks — The Wallachians — " Rudolph the 
Black "— Wallachia a Huge Battle-Field— Physical Appearance and Domestic 
Habits of the Wallachians— Fine Natural Advantages— Quarries of Salt— The 
Great Family of Slavonians— Where Pure Types are Found— Pov^rer of Music 
—Beautiful Women— Costumes— Military Confines — Shepherds and Guards — 
Idle Drunkards— SinfTular Proverbs— Petty Warfare — Constantinople— Famous 
Mosque — Wonderful Bazaars H^ 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 

How the Russians Look— Peculiar Styles of Dress— White Cap and Shapeless 
Great-Coat— Fur Garments in Dog Days— Flowing Beards— National Pecu- 
liarities of Character— Trusting in God, Chance and the Czar— Anarchists more 
Noisy than Numerous — Absence of Comfort in Russian Hotels — Universal Use 
of Tobacco— The Czar's Absolute Sway— Peasants Ignorant and Loyal— Im- 
mense Army and Navy — Fine Old Moscow — Famous Kremlin — Domestic Life 
and Customs— Houses and Villages— Scant Household Furniture— Simple Food 
—Summer Dress of Peasants— Agricultural Pursuits— Hunting— Amusements 
and Drunkenness— Russian Nobility— Droll Mixtures in Russian Character- 
Servants who Serve You Faithfully and Steal Your Money— Lying to Get a 
Glass of Whiskey— The Crimea— Appearance of Sebastopol To-day— Traces of 
the Great Siege— The Samoyedes— Wanderers on the Shores of the Arctic 
Ocean— Remarkable Costumes— Sledges and Tents— People of the Eastern 
Caucasus— Moslem Fanatics— Great Variety of Dialects— Clean Houses and 
Shabby Clothes 1^3 

CHAPTER IX. 

THROUGH THE WILDS OF SIBERIA. 

A Country Which is an Immense Plain— Lagoons and Marine Shells— Fossil Re- 
mains" of the Mammoth and Other Animals— Clouds of Mosquitoes— Rich 
Mines— Metalic Wealth— Precious Stones— Making Fortunes— Men Who Can 
Learn Any Mechanical Business— Stealing Gems— Penal Colonies—" Sent to 
Siberia "—Criminals Exiled— Grades of Crime and Punishment— Long Marches 
Over Frozen Wastes— Treatment of the " Unfortunate "—Siberian Society- 
Parisian Fashions and Sparkling Champagne— Going Eighty Miles to Attend a 
Ball— Hopeful Future for Siberia 160 

CHAPTER X. 
QUAINT OLD HOLLAND. 

A Very Attractive Country— Fight to Keep out the Ocean— Ancient Dykes- 
Towns Below the Level of the Sea— Shrinkage of the Zuyder Zee— Peter the 



viii CONTENTS. 

Great — A King Working as a Ship-Carpenter — Patience and Industry of the 
Dutcli — Domestic Life and Comforts — Poor Country and Rich Inhabitants — 
Farmers' Houses Furnished with Every Luxury — Passion for Cleanliness — 
Universal Scrubbing — Mercantile People — Efficient Eaters and Drinkers — -Fish 
and Vegetables — Drinking and Smoking Habits — Little Intemperance — Singular 
Customs of Courtship and Marriage — Celebratiijg the Wedding — Largest Town 
in Holland — How Amsterdam Gets Its Name — Industries and Commercial Im- 
portance — Numerous Canals — Abominable Stenches — Art Treasures — Galleries 
of Paintings — Wind-Mills — Church Chimes — A Country " Great in its Small- 
ness " — Hospitality a National Trait 171 

CHAPTER XL 

SCENES IN GERMANY AND THE NORTH. 

Where the Reai^Germans are Found — Mixtures of Nationalities-^Complexion and 
Figure — Fondness for Music — Courtships and Engagements — Fidelity in Social 
Intercourse- — -Old City of Nuremburg — -Picturesque View — Ancient Canal Re- 
cently Finished — Manufactures — Printing the Bible — Fine Architecture — Hans 
Sachs — Cobbler Poet — Longfellow's Tribute to the German Bard — Gloomy Old 
Dungeons — Terrible Tales — Famous Church and Tomb — Story of St. Sebald — 
A Weil-Ordered City — Polite People — Parks and Concerts — Residence of the 
Nobility — Bombardment of Brussels — Superb Buildings — City of Liege — 
Romantic Situation — Imposing Edifices — Zoological Garden — Copenhagen — - 
Ancient Siege — Danish Fleet Defeated by Lord Nelson — Ravages by the Plague 
— Famous Museum — Astounding Relics — The Norwegians — Rough Exterior but 
Kind Heart — The Danes — The Swedes — Icelanders — Love for a Frigid Island 
—Honest Old Fogies 186 

CHAPTER XII. 

WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 

Vastness of Space — Curious Sun Spots — Amazing Distance and Bulk of the Sun — 
Brilliant Constellations — Distances of the Fixed Stars — Falling Fire-Balls — 
Mysterious Nebulse — Singular Freaks of Comets — The Immense Comet of 1843 
— The Earth Passing Through the Tail of a Comet 206 

CHAPTER XIII. 

WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY (Continued). 

Thomas Moore's Tribute to the "Angel ci Light "—The Sun a Father of an 
Orderly Family— A Dazzling King in the Firmament— Drawing Worlds through 
Deserts of Space — Will the Sun Last Forever?— Wonderful Sun-Spots— 
Caverns in the Sun that would Swallow Ten Worlds like Ours — Terrible Con- 
vulsions—The Sun's Rotation— Mercury and Venus — Marvelous Transit of 
Venus— Solar Heat— The Sunlight a Brilliant Painter— Chemistry of Solar 
Rays — Microscopic Photography — Instantaneous Pictures — Eclipses — The 
Splendid Corona — Startling Eruptions on the Sun's Surface— Lord Byron's 
Apostrophe to the Sun— Mercury— Venus— Galileo's Riddle— Mars— Jupiter- 
Saturn — Uranus — Neptune 224 



CHAPTER I. 
FASCINATING SCENES IN FRANCE. 

Extent and Situation of tlie Country — Mountains and Lowlands — Former Haunts oi 
Wolf, Boar and Deer — P^ine Climate— What France Exports —Splendid Paris — 
River Seine and Bridges — Palaces in the Heart of the City— Magnificent Gardens — 
Heroes, Nymphs and Fauns — A Celebrity and his Nosegay — Favorite Resort of 
Napoleon III — Celebrated Cathedral — "A Book in Stone" — Gigantic Proportions 
and Superb Symmetry — "Gamins" of Modern Paris — Songs in a Hidden Gal- 
lery — Rich Decorations — Women Elegantly Dressed— A Historic Edifice — Grand 
Sight — Scene of Coronation and Royal Marriage — Palace and Gardens of Ver- 
sailles^Once a Magnificent Home of Royalty — Renowned Personages — Startling 
Scenes in Earlier Days — Ancient Churches — Palace of Fontainebleau 
— Place Where the Great Napoleon Signed his Abdication. 

,,|^ ULLY three and a half times larger than England, France 
is singularly well situated for commerce. As Russia 
occupies the broadest part of the European Continent, so 
France stretches across its narrowest span, and, lying 
between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, has good harbors 
in both seas. From Italy it is separated by the Jura Alps, 
from Spain by the rugged Pyrenees. The boundary of 
the country on the side of Belgium and Germany is a 
mere line on the map, guarded by a chain of fortresses 
round which international jealousies are likely to circle for ages yet to 
come. Corsica, a rugged forest-covered mountainous island of the 
Mediterranean, is also an integral part of France, so far as its govern- 
ment is concerned, though the people are more Italian than French, and 
cherish strong prejudices, which a century of Gallic rule has not yet 
entirely effaced. 

France is not an elevated country outside the ranges mentioned, yet 
Mont Blanc, the loftiest peak in Europe, rises just within its borders. 
The lowlands of France are not, however, flats, as in the more northerly 
countries, but rolling, undulating districts lying for the most part along 
the Atlantic bordei , and in the Valley of the Rhone opening into the 
Mediterranean. About one-eighth of the surface is still wooded, in spite 
of the enormous destruction of timber which has been going on during 
the last (qw centuries, the forests of Orleans and Fontainebleau being 
specimens of what at one time prevailed over much of the country con- 
2 17 




FASCINATING SCENES IN FRANCE. 19 

trolled by the despotic feudal proprietors who took their pleasure in the 
widespread haunts of the wolf, the boar and the deer. 

But with slight exceptions, there are few parts of France incapable of 
supplying food for man and beast. The climate is one of the finest in 
Europe — mild, equable and healthy — in spite of the hot winds from Africa 
which sometirjies impinge on the southern districts, and the chilly 
"mistral" which sweeps down from the Alps in the North. The vine is 
one of the plants regularly grown in all the departments except the north^ 
western, the regions of Champagne, Burgundy, and the country in the 
vicinity of Bordeaux being the best fitted for the protection of the grapes 
from which the wines known under these names are made. 
Great Variety of Exports. 
The olive flourishes in the valley of the Rhone, the maize is also a 
profitable crop, and in the maritime country opposite England wheat and 
other cereals, along with all kinds of temperate fruits, are grown in great 
abundance and perfection, while the labor of the peasants results in the 
exportation of prodigious quantities of fowls, eggs, butter and vegetables 
to England, which constitutes their most profitable market. The extreme 
subdivision of farms acts prejudicially on pastoral pursuits. In the number 
And quality of the sheep, cattle and horses, France is far inferior to 
Germany and England, though, again, the general comfort, thrift, and 
prosperity of the people are superior to what obtains in the latter country, 
md even in the former, which the poverty of the soil, and the oppressive 
military and other laws, handicap. 

The Brilliant French Capital. 
Paris, the gayest capital of modern civilization — the goal of pleasure- 
seeking pilgrims from every quarter of the globe — the city that, accord- 
ing to Victor Hugo, combines in itself Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem — 
the apotheosis at once of beauty, strength, and truth — Paris, like most 
other cities of historic fame, has gradually risen from an insignificant 
beginning to its present height of power and glory. Across the broad 
hill-encircled basin, upon which the modern city stands, flows the river 
Seine, hemmed in on either bank by five miles of quays, spanned by five^- 
and-twenty bridges, and passing on its way palaces, churches, and edifices, 
linked with innumerable historic and legendary associations. The river 
in its course encircles two small islands, and on the larger of these, the 
nucleus was formed of that grand aggregate which after nearly twenty 
centuries of growth and development is now known to all the world as 
Paris. 

Old chroniclers have recorded many fanciful legends of the origin of 



20 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



the city, but the earliest authentic history we have is of a hunted tribe 
fleeing from some unknown locahty, and treating with the Senones, a 
tribe of the Gallic Confederation, for a strip of land on which to settle. 
The fugitives were known as the Parish — that is, borderers. On seven 
small islands of the Seine, that have now become two, these rude hunters 
and fishers built their village of thatched mud huts, and called it Lutetia — 
" dwelling of the waters." As skillfully as they knew how they fenced 
in their primitive citadel, and connected it with the mainland by two 
bridg-es. On both sides of the river were marshes and forest'^, abounding 




PONT DES ARTS, LOUVRE AND TUILERIES. 

with wild boars and other game. Here they sought their prey, and on 
the high places now known as Mont St. Genevieve, Montmartre, and 
elsewhere, they reared their rough-hewn altars, and celebrated the mystic 
rites of their relimon. 

o 

No less than sixty acres in the very heart of Paris were covered by the 
magnificent group of palaces known as the Louvre and the Tuileries. 
The latter was destroyed in 1 87 1, and its ruins were removed in 1882 by 
order of the municipality. The Louvre, with its grand fagades, pavilions, 
and colonnades, and its splendid halls, saloons, and galleries, still stands 
as the proudest monument of the ancient royalty of France, as well as oi 



FASCINATING SCENES IN FRANCE. 



21 



her imperial splendor in modern days. Down to the water's edge in 
ancient times stretched a dense forest, in which King Dagobert built 
himself a hunting-seat, afterwards transformed by Philip Augustus into a 
citadel and a group of towers. This stronghold was used by succeeding 
monarchs as a State prison. It became dilapidated, and although re- 
stored and furbished up for the reception of the Emperor Charles V., the 
result was so unsatisfactory that Francis I. determined to rear a stately 
modern palace in lieu of the old feudal castle. Pierre Lescot, the great 
architect, aided by the noted sculptor Jean Coujon, commenced the work 
which has from time to time afforded occupation for French monarchs 





PALACE OF THE TUIEERIRS, DESTROYED BY THE COMMUNE, iS/I. 

and architects ever since. Three Queens — Catherine de Medici, Marie 
de Medici, and Anne of Austria — successively lavished sumptuous deco- 
rations on the interior; Louis XIV. and Colbert built the eastern and 
southern facades. But the King relinquished his project of completing 
the work in favor of his new caprice at Versailles, and a considerable 
part of the building was roofless till finished by Napoleon I. His 
nephew, Napoleon III., at a cost of 25,000,000 francs, made vast addi- 
tions, building elaborately-sculptured pavilions, and porticoes, and colon- 
nades, until the Louvre and Tuileries formed one immense and .stately 
pile completely surrounding the Place du Carrousel. 

The Garden of the Tuileries, if perhaps deserted now to some extent 



22 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



by the fashionable world for the Champs Elys^es, is still a favorite resort 
of thousands of Parisians, and a very paradise for nursemaids and chil- 
dren. In the time of Louis XIII. there were gardens here, much smaller 
than now, but still picturesque, in their way, and decidedly fashionable. 
There was a wood much frequented by young lovers, a lake with swans, 
an aviary, a labyrinth, an echo, and so forth. 

Then, in ! 630, Renard, by royal command, cleared a space, and planted 
rare flowerlnc^- plants, and built a royal dog-kennel. In the reign of Louis 

^ - " -.--^^=^^ XIV. the celebrated 

# ^ landscape-gardener Lf» 

I Notre gave to the ga^- 

m. dtns of the Tuileries 

the same general feat- 

■ uies they now retain — 

broad gravel walks, 

smooth lawns, gay par- 

^g terres, shady ivenues 

^= of limes and chestnuts, 

and basins and foun^ 

tains with marble 

divinities, heroes, 

nymphs, and fauns, to 

n:ieet the eye at every 

step. 

Many a civic and 
fiaternal festival did 
the RepubHcans hold 
beneath the shade of 
^^^^^^Mthe grand avenues of 
these gardens. Two 
hemicycles of white 
marble still remain as a memorial of that epoch ; they were designed 
by Robespierre for a council of old men to preside over the floral 
games in the month of Germmal (21st March to 19th April). The 
gxzndifHe of the " Supreme Being " was held here, when Crime and Vice 
were burnt in efifigy, and Robespierre, walking in splendid raiment at the 
head of the National Convention, and carrying a nosegay nearly as big as 
himself, excited jealousy and paved the way for his doom. The new 
road in front of the palace-ruins marks the site of the " Reserved Garden," 
where Napoleon III., for hours at a time, watched his child as he amused 




THE ARCH OF TRIUMPH. 



FASCINATING SCENES IN FRANCE. 



23 



himselt' with his costly toys, undreaming of the "baptism of fire" at 
Saarbriick and the awful death in Zulu-land. 

Looking up to the front of the cathedral of Notre Dame from the 
Place du Parvis, on the venerable Isle St. Louis, with " God's Hotel," the 
great hospital on one hand and the vast lime-stone mansions of new 
Paris on the other, the effect is grand. The sunlight breaks into brilliant 
tracery o^ gleams 
over the almost 
countless statues 
ranged above the 
huge doors, and 
a roseate glow is 
reflected from 
the rosace in the 
centre of the'*" 
fagade. Firmly 
founded as tlu 
everlasting hills, |f 
its foundation- 
stones lying up- 
on the very river 
bed of the Seinf^ 
and on the ruiub 
of a pagan tem- 
ple, it is one of ^ 
the most impres- 
sive monuments 
in Europe. Vic 
tor Hugo calls it 
the " book in 
stone," and, in- ^ 
deed, it is at once 
an eoic and a vestibule of the new opera house — paris. 

romance. It has been the scene of numerous historic transactions. 

The sturdy majesty of its form — that of the Latin cross — and the 
superb symmetry of its gigantic proportions, give it an epic force ; while 
the wonderfully imaginative decorations of its towers and balconies, the 
vast and dizzy heights, the whelming abysses, the gorgeous outlook, and 
the fine flow of fancy, even in the smallest detail, give it a romantic 
character. The wealth of legend, too, lavished upon it by a thousand) 




2,4 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



artists, poets and dreamers, has made it stand out weird among the 
churches. It has infinite transition within its Hmits for him who wanders 
aright rn its galleries. The great recess at the altar's rear, where the red 
and black-robed priests are chanting continuous psalms, seems like a bit 
of life cut out of the Middle Ages. 

There is only one thing to destroy the illusion, and that is the little 




group of white- stoled boys 
who swing the censers before 
the mner altar, and who now 
and then smg in childish 
voices There is no mistaking 
these urchins, they are all the 
irreverent incredulous, skepti- 
cal 'gamins' of modern 
Paris, utterly devoid of serious 
beliefs and superstitions. In 
another portion of the cathedral you shall see a group of market women, 
bare-footed, coarse-haired, grimy-armed, savoury of the fish-barrel and 
the potato-sack, kneeling reverently before little straw- bottomed chairs, 
and listening with tears in their tired eyes to the pure voices of the women 
singing in some hidden gallery. 

Before the entrance to the grand aisle sits the withered old man who 



FRENCH HAWKER CRYING HIS WARES- 



FASCINATING SCENES IN FRANCE. 



25 



holds the brush from which the holy water is sprinkled upon the wor- 
shippers. He sits there, under the sombre shadow of the great pillar, all 
day long. Never a gleam of sunlight touches him; never a soul salutes 
him, every one is too busy with his or her conscience, and he sprinkles, 
sprinkles, sprinkles, dreamily afar off, as if he had eaten of the lotus. In 
the lateral chapels, many of which are extremely rich in decoration and 
design, elegandy-dressed women kneel for hours together, praying for 
the remission of sins for which they believe they are easily pardoned. 
Ah ! here is a dingy and grimy old door leading up great stone steps 




FAMOUS CATHEDRAL OF NOTRE DAME. 

to the cathedral roof; where the lover of the picturesque may wander for 
hours without ever wearying. It is a long way up, and the steps are worn 
and old; millions of feet have made great creases in them. Suddenly you 
stagger out upon a wide platform, and Paris, with its curving Seine — 
Paris, with its hundred palaces, its giant avenues, its vast towers, its 
glorious parks, lies spread before you. You feel as if breathing a purer 
air. You are of the world, yet separated from it. You are elated, jubi- 
lant, exalted. 

The hum and din of the great capital smites gently upon your ears. A 
strong thrill of excitement runs through you as you press to the outer 



26 



FROM POLE TO POLE, 



railing, ana look down from the dizzy height into the place belov*. An- 
those ants cvawling on their ant-hill, or are they really men in the r^'iarket 
place ? As you get tired and seek a spot to repose, the old womaix who 
has her home in a little house in the belfry invites you to a place on a 
rustic bench. 

Notre Dame nas had its day of splendor and consummate glories. 
Since its first stone was laid in the tenth century, it has seen riots, mur- 
ders, vast mobs of thieves, iconoclasts; and kings have come there to be 
crowned and married. The old cathedral is essentially a Parisian pro- 




CHURCH OF SAINT EUSTACHE. 

duct : its Gothic proportions were hewn out of the limestone quarries in 
and around the city, and for many hundreds of years architects wrought 
into it their hopes, their fears, their aspirations. 

There were long epochs between its beginning and its completion, the 
first stone was laid in 1163 ; the choir was finished in 1185 ; the triforium 
of the nave in 121 5 ; the chapels of the apsis were built in 1296; and the 
church was very frequently altered and mutilated during the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries. When the restoration began, in 1845, *t was feared 
that much of the antique beauty of the venerable structure would be lost; 



FASCINATING SCENES IN FRANCE. 



27 



but the French of to-day, with a praiseworthy care for details, have copied 
in its exactest outHne every stone and ornament of the edifice, and it 
stands rejuvenated in large degree. 

There are few grander sights than that of the old cathedral, filled with 
twenty thousand worshippers, kneeling mutely in the sombre shadow of 
the great pillars, while from the organ come thunderous outbursts of 
music, and from the concealed galleries the pure voices of chanting 
women. * Napoleon I. and Josephine were crowned here. Napoleon III. 
was married here. It seems almost like yesterday when the Commune 
sternly demanded the silver images of the great altars, that they miyht be 





VIEW OF IHE PALACE AND PARK OF VERSAILLE'^. 

melted into money with which to purchase bread for " the armies of 
Paris." The Commune made an effort also to destroy the venerable 
cathedral by fire, but it was frustrated, and the florid spires and towers 
still kiss the crystal sky. 

Outside the walls of Paris are many sites of historic interest. Fore- 
most of these in point of celebrity comes Versailles, with its grand palace 
and gardens, created by Louis XIV. at a cost of not less than forty mil- 
lions of pounds sterling, necessitating increased taxation, that hastened 
the coming of the Great Revolution. Its splendid saloons and apart- 
ments, associated with all the glories and scandals of the French Court 



>M FROM POLE TO POLE. 

from the youth of Louis XIV. to the Revolution ; its vast collections of 
pictures, portraits, busts, and statues ; its terraces, avenues, parterres, 
orangeries, bowers, lakes, and grand fountains : all these and other attrac- 
tions, which draw thousands of visitors to this magnificent home of roy- 
alty, would require a chapter to describe in detail, while to narrate the 
historic memories of the palace would be to write the history of France 
for a century. An innumerable train of kings and queens, poets and 
philosophers, courtiers and lovely women, passed through these halls. 
Scenes of Suprising- Splendor. 

Louis XIV. changed his predecessors' hunting-lodge at Versailles into 
a gorgeous palace for Madame de la Valliere. When that lady fled, to 
die in a convent cell, the graceful and witty Madame de Montespan, with 
her blue eyes and fair waving hair, reigned here in her stead. When 
she also sought the cloister, Madame de Maintenon succeeded, and was 
married to the King in 1686. Magnificent and lavishly extravagant 
were the Court festivities in those days. At the marriage of the Duke 
of Burgundy, 4,000 wax candles lit the Great Gallery, that could scarcely 
contain the throng of courtiers and grand ladies brilliantly dressed and 
sparkling with flashing gems. Amongst that .gay crowd moved gen- 
erals like Turenne, statesmen like Colbert and Louvet, men of letters like 
Racine and Boileau and Moliere, and preachers like Bossuet and Massil- 
lon and Pere la Chaise — the latter zealously working to bring about the 
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 

Here Madame de Maintenon watched the death-bed of Louis XIV., 
and then retired to St. Cyr, to end her days in prayer. Louis XV., 
whilst loving, in a fashion, his " frozen Venus," Queen Maria Leckzinska, 
brought to Versailles Madame de Pompadour, who won his admiration 
whilst hunting in the forest. Her name for twenty years stood foremost 
in France, till she died in the palace, suffering in mind and body. Clad 
in a robe of serge, and with a wooden cross on her bosom, she was 
carried hence with a pauper's funeral, as she had directed, to her grave 
in the Capuchin convent ; and the King, who watched the scene from the 
balcony, soon solaced himself with the society of Madame du Barry. 
When the last miserable years of Louis XV. were ended, the Du Barry- 
was sent adrift, and a brilliant Court soon clustered round the fair Queen 
Marie Antoinette. Here Burke saw her, and compared her to " the 
morning star, full of hope, and splendor, and joy." In the distinguished 
crowd that surrounded her, beauty and courage, and wisdom and wit, 
were conspicuous. 

But whilst the Court pursued its glittering round of pleasure, and 



FASCINATING SCENES IN FRANCE. 



29 



Louis XVI., busied himself with his beloved turning-lathe and forge, 
ominous clouds were gathering. Soon those clouds broke in the tempest 
of revolution. A ferocious crowd carried off the King and his family in 
triumph to Paris, and the Palace of Versailles ceased to be a royal resi- 
dence. It was stripped and devastated, and turned into a manufactory of 
arms. Napoleon wi.shed to re-furnish it, but could not spare the money. 
Louis Philippe spent large sums in restoring the palace, and made it 
what it now is — a grand historical museum. On the i8th of January, 
871, the Great Gallery beheld a novel scene, for here King William of 




PALACE OF FONTAINEBLEAU THE FOUNTAIN COURT. 

Prussia was declared Emperor of Germany by the generals of the army 
that was then besieging Paris. 

The Great and Little Trianon are for the most part associated with the 
royal mistresses. At the latter Louis XV. died of small-pox, whilst the 
Du Barry was anxiously watching for the signal-light in his window 
which told her that her reign was at an end. Hither came Marie Antoi- 
nette in her straw hat and white muslin dress to cultivate her flowers, 
and play at being dairymaid and shepherdess. 

Fontainebleau, where kings and rulers of France took their pleasure 
in successive edifices, from the time of King Robert the Devout to Louis 



30 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

Philippe, is a handsome town, with a splendid palace and a grand forest. 
In this palace Napoleon I. signed his abdication in 1814. 

At Compiegne, where in 1430 the Maid of Orleans was made prisoner 
by the English, there is a beautiful palace which was alv/ays a favorite 
residence with the royalty of France. Here wandered Marie de Medici, 
watched by Richelieu's spies, till she escaped to die in poverty in a for- 
eign land ; here strayed young Louis XV., sighing for Mazarin's lovely 
niece, Marie Mancini ; here Louis XVL, and afterwards Napoleon, came 
to meet their respective Austrian brides. 

St. Cloud, preserving by its name the memory of the pious grandson 
of Clotilda, shows a mass of ruins for what was once a stately palace. In 
the adjacent forest Catherine de Medici and her fifty plumed damsels 
hunted. In the palace the line of Valois became extinct when Henry 
III. died by the knife of Friar Clement. Here, long after, Mirabeau, 
won over by the seductive grace of Marie Antoinette, mistook the signs 
of the times, and declared tliat the monarchy was saved. Here, as it 
were but yesterday, the young Prince Imperial was holding his youthful 

Court. 

Places of World-wide Renown. 

St. Germain-en-Laye is associated with the exiled Stuarts, who at this 
place plotted the restoration that was not to be. Here poor Henrietta 
Maria, widow of Charles I. of England, dwelt, so poor at times as to be 
obliged to stay in bed for want of a fire. Here Charles II. heid his 
Court, and vainly tried to win Mademoiselle de Montpensier, the richest 
heiress in France. In 1689 James II. came with his troop of exiled 
nobles to live on the bounty of King Louis, and here the Pretender 
Charles Edward was proclaimed James III. of England. 

Vincennes has won fame as palace, prison, and fortress. It is associa- 
ted with the loves of Charles VII. and Agnes Sorel, the death of Henry 
v.. King of France and England, and was the prison-house of hundreds 
of victims of the dreaded letires de cachet. Here the young Due d'Eng- 
hien was shot by Napoleon as a warning to the Bourbons. 

There are scores of other interesting spots around Paris which we can 
but name ; St. Denis, famous for its abbey-church, and monuments of 
the Kings of France, rifled in a single day in 1793 of the royal remains 
of ten centuries ; Malmaison, sacred to Josephine's sorrowing widowhood ; 
Charenton, famous for religious controversies at the time of the League, 
and at the present time for its National Lunatic Asylum ; Arceuil, with 
its magnificent aqueduct of the time of Louis XIII., and remains of an 
earlier and Roman structure. 



CHAPTER II. 
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 

rhe Largest City in the World — Extent of London — Square Miles— Population — Part 
called "The City" — Very Ancient Town — Principal Buildings, Streets and 
Objects of Interest— The Celebrated Westminster Abbey — Founded by Edward 
the Confessor — Description of the "World's Most Famous Religious Edifice — 
Edward's Chapel — Tombs of Monarchs — Poets' Corner — Beautiful Windows of 
Colored Glass — Antiquity and Threatened Ruin— The Thames Embankment — 
Cathedral of Saint Paul — Lofty Dome— Unique Whispering Gallery — Celebrities 
Buried in the Crypt — Houses of Parliament— Story of the Gunpowder Plot — The 
Queen Opening Parliament — Description of Htr Majesty in State Robes — Edin- 
burgh — Calton Hill — Princess Street — Scott's Monument — Old Castle — Holyrood 
Palace— Romance of History— Trip Through Ireland— History of the Irish — 

Characteristics of the Celt — Fine Scenery in Ireland — Lakes of 

Killarney — Irish Towns — Belfast and Dublin. 

1^ ONDON is situated on both sides of the river Thames, lying 
principally on the north bank in the county of Middlesex. 
The portion south of the Thames is in the county of 
Surrey. The distance from London to the mouth of the 
Thames is about forty-five miles. The city is fourteen 
miles long and ten broad, thus covering an area of one 
hundred and forty square miles, or more ground than 
the District of Columbia. It had a population of 2,362,000 
in 185 1. At present the population is about 4,000,000. 
The present increase is about 44,000 per annum, or a birth every twelve 
minutes. It contains 360,000 houses, and the cost of food used each 
day is said to be $800,000. It is one of the healthiest capitals of 
Europe, the annual death-rate being twenty-four in every thousand ; 
while that of Berlin is twenty-six, that of Paris twenty-eight, that of St. 
Petersburg forty-one, and that of Vienna forty-nine. 

The portion of London called " The City," and which was the original 
settlement, was formerly surrounded by walls. It is situated on the 
Middlesex side, and lies between the tower and Temple Bar. The other 
official divisions of the Metropolis are Westminster, Marylebone, Fins- 
bury, Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Chelsea and Southwark. Of late years 
two social divisions have sprung up, namely, Belgravia and Tyburnia. 
Belgravia lies south of Hyde Park, and west of Westminster. It is the 

31 




32 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



creation of the last fifty years, and is the home of the EngHsh aristocracy, 
Tyburnia lies north of Hyde Park, and west of Marylebone. It is the 




ELIZABETH ENGLAND'S MOST FAMOUS QUEEN. 



home of prosperous city merchants and professional men, who hope some 
day to be numbered among the aristocracy. 

London was a town before the Roman conquest, its real origin being 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 33 

lost in the gloom of antiquity. The Romans surrounded it with walls, 
and under them it grew and prospered. It contains many venerable 
monuments of the past, the most interesting of which are those which are 
connected with the history of England. 

The modern city of London is massively built, and is in many respects 
the most splendid city in the world. It is the commercial capital of the 
globe, and consequently the wealthiest city of modern times. Its police 
regulations are excellent, and it is in all respects one of the best governed 
cities of the world. 

We give in the words of Mr. Fetridge, the author of Harper's admira- 
ble " Handbook for Travelers in Europe," the following description of a 
run through the city : " To see and properly appreciate London in an 
architectural point of view, the traveler should devote one or two days 
to viewing its exterior. Starting from Charing Cross, the architectural 
and fine-art centre of the West End, the towers of Westminster Palace 
and the houses of Parliament on your right, the National Gallery on your 
left, the beautiful club-houses of Pall Mall in your rear, with Nelson, in 
bronze, looking down upon you from a height of one hundred and sixty 
feet, you proceed along the Strand, passing Marlborough and Somerset 
Houses on your right ; through Temple Bar, which marks the city's 
limits on the west; through Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill, emerging into 
St Paul's Churchyard, with the Cathedral of Sir Christopher Wren's 
masterpiece on your right, and the Post-office on your left; through 
Cheapside, notice Bow Church, another of Wren's best works ; through 
Poultry to the great financial centre, the Exchange, in front of which 
stands an equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington, the Mansion 
House, the residence of the Lord Mayor, Banks, etc. ; down King William 
Street to London Bridge, passing in view of the beautiful monument 
erected to commemorate the great fire ; then King William's statue. 
The World's Most Celebrated Bridgre. 

London Bridge, from 9 to ii a. m., is one of the greatest sights of the 
capital. In the immediate vicinity hundreds of steamers are landing their 
living freight of merchants, clerks and others for the city, amid a fearful 
din of rin-ging bells, steam-whistles, shouting carmen and omnibus con- 
ductors, while the bridge itself is one mass of moving passengers and 
vehicles. On your left is Billingsgate (who has not heard of that famous 
fish-market ?) ; next the Custom-house, then the Tower of London, 
below which are St. Catharine's Docks, then the celebrated London 
Docks, the vaults of which are capable of holding 60,000 pipes of wine, 
and water-room for three hundred sail of vessels. The Pool commences 



34 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



just below the bridge : this is where the colliers discharge their cargoes 
of coal. 

The city of London derives its principal revenues from a tax of thirteen 
pence per ton levied on all coal landed. On the left, or upper side of the 




THE BEAUTIFUL QUEEN ANNE. 

bridge, notice the famous Fishmongers' Hall, belonging to one of the 
richest London corporations. Cross the bridge, and continue to the 
Elephant and Castle, via Wellington and High Streets, passing Barclay 
and Perkins's famous brewery, Queen's Bench, Su'-rey Jail, etc., via Great 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 35 

Surrey Street, across Blackfriars Bridge, along the Thames Embankment 
to the new houses of Parhament. 

Here you see not only the finest edifices in an architectural point of 
view, but in a military, naval, legal, and ecclesiastical point. England's 
great, alive and dead, are here congregated ; the Horse Guards, whence 
the commander-in-chief of the English army issues his orders; the 
Admiralty ; Westminster Hall, the Law Courts of England; Westmin- 
ster Abbey, where England's kings and queens have been crowned, from 
Edward the Confessor to the present time, and where many of them lie 
buried. Here, in Whitehall Street, opposite the Horse Guards, is the 
old Banqueting-house of the palace of Whitehall, in front of which 
Charles I. was beheaded ; through Parliament Street to Waterloo Place, 
to Pall Mall, the great club and social centre of London ; St. James's 
Street, past St. James's Palace and Marlborough House to Buckingham 
Palace, to Hyde Park Corner, to Cumberland Gate or Marble Arch. 
Private carriages only can enter the Park ; cabs and hackney coaches 
are not permitted entrance. Oxford Street to Regent Street, and down 
Regent (the fashionable shopping -street) to the starting-point. Charing 
Cross. 

Next drive to the Southwestern Railway Station, and take the train 
for Richmond or Hampton Court, returning by the Thames in a boat to 
Greenwich. This will be a most interesting excursion, especially if you 
find a comparatively intelligent boatman to explain the different sights on 
the banks of the winding river." 

One- of the World's Wonders. 

Westminster Abbey is, with the exception of the Tower of London, 
the most famous of all the buildings of England. The name was used 
to distinguish the Abbey from the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, which 
was formerly called the Eastminster. The site was originally occupied 
by a church, which it is believed was built by Sebart, King of the East 
Saxons. In 1055, Edward the Confessor began the erection on the site 
of an abbey a church in honor of the Apostle Peter. Very little now 
remains of the Confessor's work, with the exception of the Pyx House, 
which lies to the south of the present Abbey, adjoining the Chapter 
House, and that part of the cloister which is now used by the boys of 
the Westminster School as a gymnasium. 

Henry HL, when he came to the throne, found the old Abbey in great 
need of repair, and resolved to pull it down and replace it with a new 
and more splendid edifice. He pulled down the greater part of the Con- 
fessor's work, and erected the principal portion of the present edifice. 



36 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

Henry VII. rebuilt a large part of the Abbey, and added to it the beauti- 
ful chapel which bears his name, and which stands behind the head of 
the cross, in the form of which the Abbey is built. Sir Christopher 
Wren completed parts of the towers at the western entrance, but the 
Abbey as a whole is very much as Henry VII. left it. It is a massive 
and venerable pile, the beauty and grandeur of which are beyond the 
power of words to describe. 




^BfCSTr 



3 3 3, I J 

1^""" \ \^ I i JA", nil liijlii nUMi'l 
"'it' ^ i-^i ' ** "^ 



rA^ 




THE THAMES EMBANKMENT AND BOULEVARD. 

The interior is lofty, the roof resting upon massive pillars gray with 
age. The effect is somewhat marred by the screen which divides the 
choir from the rest of the church. Daily services are held in this part 
of the building, which is provided with pews. A dim, rehgious light 
pervades the interior, and is in harmony with the sacred character of the 
holy house. 

Behind the present altar screen is the Chapel of Edward the Confessor, 
near which, in old times, devout persons used to sit in order to be cured 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 37 

of certain ailments. It contains the shrine of the Confessor, beiore which 
Henry IV. was seized with his last illness, while confessing. Here also 
are the tombs of Richard the II. and his queen, Anne, Henry III., Henry V. 
and Edward III. and his queen, Phillippa, and Queen Eleanor. The 
chapel also contains the two chairs used in the coronation of the mon- 
archs of Great Britain. One of these has a stone seat, known in old 
times in Scotland as Jacob's Pillow. It was brought from that country 
to England by Edward I. The other chair was made for the coronation 
of Mary, the wife of William III. Round the Confessor's Chapel are a 
number of smaller chapels, filled with tombs. Back of the tomb of Henry 
V. is the chapel of Henry VII., a beautiful specimen of florid Gothic 
architecture. The gates leading into it are^ of brass, and are skillfully 
wrought, but are now so dingy with time that they resemble iron. The 
Knights of the Bath are installed in this chapel. Here are the tombs of 
Henry VII., Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, and 
some others of less note. 

The Poets' Corner occupies the southern portion of the arm of the 
cross. It is filled with the gravies and memorials of those who have made 
the literature of England. Here lie Charles Dickens, Cumberland, the 
dramatist, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Thomas Campbell, Handel, the 
composer, David Garrick, Samuel Johnson, Joseph Addison, Beaumont, 
Spenser, Nicholas Rowe, James Thomson, author of "The Seasons," John 
Gay and others. Tablets, statues, busts and memorials are placed here in 
honor of those whose mortal remains rest elsewhere in English soi in- 
cluded among whom are Shakespeare, Milton, Southey, Cowley, Chauce; 
Dryden, Butler, Ben Jonson, Pryor, Drayton and others. All parts of th. 
Abbey are filled with memorials of England's honored dead, sonic: ot 
which are very beautiful works of art. 

Stones Crumbling with Age. 

Many of the stained glass windows are very beautiful. The large weit 
window was painted in 1735; the remainder were made during the present 
century. A movement is now in progress to replace all the windows with 
modern paintings. 

At the south of the Abbey are the Cloisters, one of the most interesting 
portions of the venerable edifice. They are so old that the stone in many 
places crumbles at a touch of the hand. They contain many graves, 
some of which arc the oldest in England. Adjoining t^e Cloisters is the 
Chapter House, an octagonal edifice, with a central pillar rising some 
thirty-five feet. It was built by Heniy III. in 1250. In old tinves the 
Chapter House was used as a Council chamber for the abbot and the 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 39 

monks, and it is said that the monks guilty of grave offences were flogged 
at the central pillar. The House of Commons subsequently met here 
until after the days of Henry VHI., when the place became a storehouse 
for public records. 

A Renowned Hig^liway. 

One of the most notable structures on the banks of the river is the 
Thames Embankment. It consists of a wall of hewn granite, protecting 
a massive quay reclaimed from the river. This is planted with trees, and 
forms a handsome promicnade, lOO feet wide, extending from Westmin- 
ster Bridge to Blackfriars. On the upper portion of the embankment 
stands the famous obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle, presented by the 
Khedive of Egypt to the city of London, and recently erected upon its 
present site. It was one of the two obelisks that stood upon the sea- 
shore at Alexandria, Egypt. Its companion was presented to the city 
of New York. 

A Magnificent Cathedral. 

St. Paul's Cathedral is not only the most conspicuous edifice in Lon- 
don, but it is. also the largest, Protestant church in the world. It is 
asserted by tradition that a Christian church was erected on the site in 
Khe second century, was destroyed by the Emperor Diocletian, was 
febuilt at a later period, and was desecrated by the pagan Saxons, who 
iield their orgies within its walls. "William the Conqueror gave a 
garter which conferred the property in perpetuity upon the cathedral, 
and solemnly cursed all persons who should attempt to diminish the 
"property." In 1083, and again in 1137, St. Paul's suffered from fire, and 
irv the Great Fire the cathedral was totally destroyed. In 1673 Sir 
Christopher Wren was employed to build a new edifice, and years later 
the present St. Paul's was completed. 

Looked at from the outside the cathedral is truly imposing. The 
upper portion is of a composite order of architecture ; the lower one 
Corinthian. Built in the form of a cross, an immense dome rises on 
eight arches over the centre. Over the dome is a gallery, and above the 
gallery is the ball and the gilded cross, the top of which is 404 feet from 
the pavement beneath. The most attractive view of the cathedral is 
obtained from the west front, in Ludgate-hill, whence admission is to be 
gained after ascending a Hight of stone steps. 

The west front opens at once into the nave. Immediately on the right 
is a recess, not unlike the private chapels in Westminster Abbey, con- 
taining a monument to the great Duke of Wellington. A figure repre- 
senting Arthur Wellesley lies under a canopy of bronze, and the na'-^'^s 



40 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

of his many victories are sculptured below. Although there is no dearth 
of" storied urn and animated bust " in St. Paul's, it must be confessed that 
the general impression produced by the inside of the cathedral is a 
gloomy one. The interior is almost conspicuous in its dearth of stained 
glass, and the few frescoes which decorate the supporting arches of the 
dome only serve to illustrate the poverty of the cathedral in artistic effort. 
Nothing of any passing interest is to be seen in the nave, but the active 
visitor may ascend a winding staircase to the whispering gallery, which 
runs round the base of the dome. As this is perfectly circular, a whisper 
may be heard round the wall from one side to the other, and an intelli- 
gent attendant will explain certain experiences of his own anent this 
curiosity in architecture. 

On a level with the whispering gallery will be found the clock and the 
canon's library. Above is a stone gallery, whence, if the day be clear, a 
fair view of Lon °;on and the Thames may be obtained ; but if the visitor 
be still more ambitious, he may ascend more winding stairs, and reach 
the golden gallery far away above the dome. Thence upward he may 
climb more steps, until he reach the ball, an expedition which may be 
undertaken once in yo'^th, but hardly ever again. 
Houses of Parliament. 

The House of Parliament preceding the elaborate building.now occupied 
by the Lords and Commons was a historic structure, and the scene oi 
numerous events which have affected the whole world. One of the inci- 
dents which made it famous was the notorious " Guy Fawkes Plot." At 
a time when political excitement ran high on account of differences upon 
religious subjects, a gentleman named Robert Catesby, conceived the 
idea of blowing up the Parliament House on the 5th of November, 1605, 
the day on which the king was to open the session. 

A cellar under the house of Lords was hired, and barrels of gunpowder 
were stored in it. The task of firing the train was confided to Guy or 
Guido Fawkes, a soldier of fortune, who was brought over from Spam 
for the purpose. The matter was kept a profound secret, and everything 
was gotten in readiness. At the last moment Lord Mounteagle was 
warned by an anonymous letter to remain away from Parliament. He 
showed this letter to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, and an examination 
of the parhament house was made on the eve of the 5 th of November. 
The gunpowder was discovered, and Fawkes was arrested in the cellar 
where it was stored. The news of the discovery of the " Gunpowder 
Treason " spread rapidly, and the parties to the plot took flight. They 
were either captured or killed. All the prisoners, including Fawkes, were 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 41 

executed. The whole nation joined in a thanksgiving for the discovery 

of" the conspiracy. 

Queen Victoria on Her Throne. 

When the Queen opens Parliament in person, she enters the palace 
through the Victoria Tower. We quote the following account of a recent 
opening of Parliament, as an example of this ceremony : 

" The peeresses and other ladies for whom places had been reserved in 
the House of Lords began to arrive early, and by one o'clock the House 
presented a spectacle with which surely no other in the world could vie. 
While the House was as yet comparatively thin, a few of the arrivals 
attracted notice, and among these were Lords Houghton, Cairns, ^md 
Lucon, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of St. Davids, Win- 
chester, Gloucester, and Peterborough. The bishops mostly gathered 
upon the bench in front of the diplomatic body, and fourteen of the judges 
took their seats on the benches allotted to them. The members of the 
diplomatic body vied with the ladies in their contribution of gold and 
color to the assembly. 

" As two o'clock approached, the Duke of Cambridge entered the 
House, wearing his robes over his field-marshal's uniform, and by that 
time rather more than a hundred peers were present. In a few moments 
all rose at the entrance of their royal highnesses the Princess of Teck and 
the Princess Christian, who took places towards the ends of the woolsack, 
facing- the throne. The Prince and Princess of Wales were the next 
arrivals, and the Prince, after speaking to the princesses and some of the 
peers, took the chair on the right of the throne, while the Princess of 
Wales occupied the centre of the woolsack. 

" At twelve minutes past two the door on the right of the throne was 
thrown open for the entrance of her majesty, who was preceded by Lord 
Granville carrying the sword of state, by the Marquis of Winchester with 
the cap of maintenance, and by Lord Bessborough with the crown. The 
robe of state had previously been placed on the throne, and when the 
Queen seated herself the Princess Louise arranged its folds around her 
majesty. The princesses then remained standing on the steps to the left 
of the throne, in front of the vacant chair of the royal consort. 
Her Majesty Ready for Business. 

" A messenger was then despatched to summon the House of Com- 
mons to the presence of the Queen, and a few minutes of absolute still- 
ness and silence followed — a striking contrast to the rustle of silks and 
the murmur of voices that had prevailed but a short time before. Then 
there came a sound of quickly trampling feet, constantly 'ncreasing in 



42 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



intensity, until Mr, Speaker made his appearance at the bar of the House, 
followed by the usual and often described rush of the more swift and 




active of the members. In the front rank of these was the prime minis 
ter, looking as if his rest during the vacation had been of no small servicf 
to him. As soon as the noise of the arrival had been hushed, the lord 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 43 

chancellor advanced to the foot of the throne, and said that he was com- 
manded by her majesty to read the speech, and that he would do so in 
her majesty's own words. At this statement there was probably some 
general sense of disappointment. As the chancellor proceeded, the 
Queen sat with eyes cast down, and almost absolutely still, a single slight 
movement of the fan being all that was at any time perceptible." 

A Picturesque City. 

Leaving the great metropolis, we will pay a visit to one of the most 
celebrated cities in Europe, in fact, in the whole world. The City of 
Edinburgh is situated on two ridges of hills, about two miles distant from 
the Firth of Forth. It contains a population of 200,000 inhabitants, and 
is a busy, thriving place. The city does not cover a very large area, but 
in proportion to its size is one of the most beautiful as well as one of the 
most magnificent of any of the European capitals. It is divided into two 
towns, called the Old and the New, by a deep ravine which runs through 
the entire length of the city. This ravine was once an unsightly morass, 
.nd both a deformity and a source of ill health to the city. It has been 
drained, and is now laid out in a series of beautiful flower gardens, and is 
crossed by a handsome bridge and a mound which join the two sections 
of the city. 

The more elevated ridge of hills is occupied by the Castle and the old 
town. On the lower ridge lies the new town, and along the north mar- 
gin of the valley runs a broad, splendid thoroughfare known as Princess 
Street. The railway lines connecting Edinburgh with the principal parts 
of the kingdom enter the city through the valley, and being thus placed 
far below the grade of the streets are prevented from being an obstruction 
to the traffic of the city, and are enabled to reach a central terminus in 
the very heart of the town. The difference between the old and the new 
towns is very marked in the character of the buildings, and also in the 

streets. 

A Grand Avenue. 

Prin<c:ess Street is one of the most beautiful avenues in Europe. Its 
north side borders the gardens which now occupy the valley, and its 
south side contains some of the handsomest buildings in the city, inclu- 
ding the principal hotels. Along the line of the gardens are the beautiful 
Scott Memorial, erected in memory of the great Sir Walter, and the 
statues of Professor John Wilson (Christopher North) ; Allan Ramsay, 
the sweet poet of nature ; Dr. David Livingstone ; and the Duke of 
Wellington. The Scott Memorial is a beautiful gothic structure, two 
hundred and sixty feet high, open at the bottom, and containing a marble 



44 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



statue of Sir Walter Scott, and a number of niches occupied by statuettes 
representing his principal characters, and effigies of the principal Scottish 
poets. In Charlotte Square, in the new town, is a handsome equestrian 
statue of Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, and in St. 
Andrew's Square is a column and statue, one hundred and fifty feet high 
in memory of Lord Melville, a fine shaft rising from a massive base. 




RENOWNED PALACE OF HOLYROOD. 



Calton Hill, in the eastern part of the city, is the site of the Royal 
Observatory, the Nelson Monument, the National Monument, an imita- 
tion of the Parthenon at Athens, the monuments to Robert Burns, Dugald 
Stewart, and Professor Playfair, and the handsome buildings of the High 
School. At the base of the hill is the grim castle-like Bridewell, or city 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 45 

prison. The view from Calton Hill is very beautiful. It commands the 
whole city and the surrounding country. To the west rise up dark and 
stern the rugged hill crowned with the frowning old Castle, and portions 
of the old and new towns with the valley and the railway stretching 
away between them. On the south are Salisbuiy Crags and Arthur's 
Seat, with Holy rood Palace and Abbey at their feet, and in the distance 
the hills of Lammermoor, and, farther still, the Pentland Hills. North- 
ward is the Firth of Forth, with Leith, the port of Edinburgh, clinging 
to its shore, and beyond it the dark hills of Fife and the distant outline 
of the Highlands. To the east is the broad, open sea stretching away to 

the horizon. 

A Rocky Fortress. 

The chief sight of Eduiburgh is the Castle. It stands on the summit 
of a lofty and abrupt hill, and commands the city and surrounding 
country. Its origin is unknown, but it is certain that a fortress stood 
here in the time of the Picts, and the legends state that the Pictish kings 
kept their daughters here until the time of their marriage. The fortress 
as it now stands dates from the Fifteenth Century, with the exception of 
the little Norman chapel, which was built by the mother of David I., who 
died here in 1093. In old times Edinburgh Castle was regarded as 
impregnable, although, in 13 13, Randolph, Earl of Moray, captured it 
from the English. Modern artillery would soon reduce it now. It is 
one of the fortresses which by the articles of union between England and 
Scotland must be kept fortified. It is rich in historical interest, and was 
the scene of many important events in the troubled history of Scotland. 
James VI. of Scotland, and afterwards James I. of England, was born 
here, in a little room which is shown to visitors, and the castle was the 
birth place and home of many of the Scottish sovereigns. Many inter- 
esting relics are preserved here, among which is the Regalia of Scotland, 
which was discovered in 18 18 after a disappearance of 1 10 years. 

Historic Holyrood. 

Holyrood Palace is another deeply interesting place. It lies at the 
foot of Salisbury Crags, and was founded in 1501 by James IV. Much 
of the present edifice dates from the reign of Charles II. of England. 
Adjoining it, but distinct from it, is the Abbey of Holyrood, founded by 
David I., in 1128. The palace is open to visitors, and contains many 
objects of interest. Among these are the apartments of the ill-fated 
Queen Mary. Here she was married to Darnley ; here Rizzio was mur- 
dered ; and here the Queen was married to her third husband, the Earl 
of Bothvvell. 



46 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



Edinburgh contains many noble institutions devoted to literature, 
science and art, and these are of so high a character as to have won for 




the city the proud name of the " Modern Athens." 

From Scotland, a short ride across the channel brings us to the 
" Emerald Isle." The majority of the people of Ireland are Celts, the 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 47 

" Englishry " occupying a comparatively small portion of the northern 
and eastern sections of the island, and the inhabitants of these regions, 
when of Saxon stock, are all comparatively recent colonists. There is, of 
course, not to take into account the legends of prehistoric people, a good 
deal of Scandinavian blood in the portions .settled by the Northmen. 
These ethnological features of Ireland are due to its position. The western 
portion, facing the Atlantic, and the southern being at a long distance 
from any other country, were entirely left to the aborigines. But when 
invaders landed from England, they, as a matter of course, seized on the 
eastern shore, that is to say, on the portion nearest the country from 
which they had set out. The same law applies to a considerable extent 
to the Scandinavian marauders. 

How Ireland Came to be Settled. 

The settlement of the north of Ireland by Scottish colonists was due to 
special provisions made by different English sovereigns, in order to re- 
people the devastated lands of the native tribes, and in later times the sale 
of encumbered estates has done much to plant " foreigners " in different 
parts of the country. At the Reformation most of the English settlers 
adopted Protestantism, and the later arrivals have been nearly all of the 
same faith. The Celtic people, on the other hand, remained true to the 
Latin Church. But many places within the Irish " pale," which had been 
settled before the Reformation, remained staunch to the ancient creed, 
and now, though of Teutonic blood, the people are as much identified 
with the national aspirations and prejudices as are the Celts, by whom 
they are surrounded, the influence of the Celt upon other races being 
thus remarkably illustrated. 

In modern times the Erse tongue is spoken, as their sole language, 
only by the poorest and least-educated of the population. In Connaught, 
Munster, the remoter parts of Ulster, the south of Leinster, and in the 
islands off the west coast, it is still the every-day speech of the rural 
classes, many of whom are entirely unacquainted with English ; and so 
widely do the sub-dialects of Erse differ that the people of one district 
have often some difficulty in understanding those of a more distant section. 

Professorships of the Irish language exi.st in several of the universities; 
but it is cultivated mainly as a philological .study, and for the sake of the 
ancient literature which it embalms. As a speech it is not growing, the 
difficulty of any one not familiar with English making his way either in 
or out of Ireland acting as a serious obstacle in the way of the young 
people cherishing it. But the emigrants who leave for America and 
Australia take it with them, and now and then poems and essays (ot the 



48 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



ultra-patriotic order) appear in this expiring language. The second 
feneration may still keep it alive, though it is hardly likely that out of 



piiiiWilfrri'fiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'i'iiw^ 




the Erse districts of Ireland it will be much studied, xcept by scholars, 
since the necessity for speaking it will have ceased. 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, 49 

In less than 1,500 years after coming in contac, with the dominant 
Romans and Teutons, the Celts ceased to be the rulin;^ race in the land, 
and long before the close of that period they existed as "heir own masters 
only in isolated septs here and there, unless, indeed, we .:MC.ept the tribes 
of the Scottish Highlands and Islands which, though nonimally subject 
to the Scottish kings, and afterwards to those of Great .''•-■irain, were in 
reality independent of either until the construction of roar]': enabled the 
English dragoons to penetrate their fastnesses. Even ye: :hey are not 
quite conquered. The Irish Celt is in a condition of ci onic protest 
against the laws under which he is forced to live, and it requires only 
such an agitation as that of the northern crofters in 1884-8, to show that 
perfect acquiescence in the rule of the Saxon is not universal in the 
regions which the Celt regards as his own. 

Thj qualities of mind which the race possess are fitted hr sudden 
dashes, but not for long-sustained efforts, such as those demanded of a 
line of conquerors, colonists and rulers of men. They are, as ihey were 
in the days of Tacitus, " good soldiers, but bad subjects." The restless 
activity which the early Irish missionaries displayed is still evinced by the 
modern Celt, who is foremost in every field where eager dash and mental 
mcrcurialism ava 1 to carry the day. 

The Ireland of to-day is well worth a visit by all who can get an oppor- 
tunity to make it. The scenery in many locations is lovely. The Lakes 
of Killarney especially are far famed for their beauty, and it 's now ,' -■ 
custom with most American tourists to land at Queenstown, go up the, 
river to C( rk, and thence move northward, taking a survey of the many 
objects of interest on the way. 

Ireland has several fine towns. Londonderry, Belfast and Dublin are 
all attrajtive cities. One is struck in Dublin with the healthful look and 
fresh complexion of the inhabitants, the fine squares and spacious streets, 
and the evidences of wealth and refinement in a country which has the 
name of being poverty-stricken. The old House of Parliament still stands 
as a suggesti'^c memori,il of Irish mdependence, which did not lon|; 
survive its own birth. 



CHAPTER III. 
SUNNY ITALY. 

Land of History and Romance — Going to Italy to Abuse Italians — Peculiar Traits oi 
the People — City of Naples — Noise and Clatter — Spendthrifts and Plunderers — 
Much Pleasure and Little Business — Recent Waking-up of Industries — Retailers of 
Drolleries — Puppet Shows — Fishermen of Naples — The Poor Helping the Poor — 
Beautiful Venice — ^The Queen City — Magnificent Town — Speculators and Gamb- 
lers—Carnivals and Gorgeous Illuminations — Renowned Old Churches — Splendid 
Works of Art — Story of "The Brides of Venice "—Places Associated with Cele- 
brities — Galileo and Titian — Lovely Italian Scenery — Beautiful Lakes — Description 
of Four Famous Lakes — A Captivating Landscape — A Winter Climate — " Biting 
Frost" — Balm of Summer— Orange Groves and Semi- 
Tropical Fruits — Silk — Cattle — Minerals — Pasture Lands. 

LL travelers in Europe are anxious to visit Italy — 
the land of Cicero, Virgil and Dante. The man 
who has been steeped in Roman history feels a 
thrill at the first view of the broken arches which 
tell of a vanished culture, such as he experiences 
at the sight of no other fragment of man's handi 
work, and as he examines for the first time in 
their own squalid homes, the swarthy, ever-grace- 
ful people in whose veins runs the blood of the 
most remarkable race whom the world ever knew, 
unless we except the Greeks, it is not easy to 
ask him to arrive at an unprejudiced judgment 
regarding them. He is in the beginning iHclined to be all on the side of 
romance. Yet after a time he is apt to suffer so severe a reaction, that it 
is sometimes said foreigners go to Italy only to abuse Italians. 

Hence, after canvassing the opinions of a hundred writers, each of whom 
professes to have arrived at his conclusions after the utmost heart-search- 
ing, one is puzzled to form any decisive view in regard to Italian character. 
One author is sweeping in his condemnation ; another is just as dogmatic 
in pronouncing the nation a much injured one. Perhaps the wise man 
may find it prudent to accept neither extreme. The truth is that though 
the modern Italians have many characteristics in common, and are in 
physical appearance evidently more or less alike, their varied origin and 
the numerous more or less complete transformations which certain citie.^^ 
50 




SUNNY ITALY. 51 

or sections of the country have undergone, must have greatly altered their 
original nature, and given particular places peculiar traits. 

Nor must it be forgotten that the modern kingdom of Italy with its 
uniform laws and institutions, is a very recent institution. Italy had pre- 
viously, for hundreds of years, been broken up into numerous little States, 
and at a still earlier date each city had a more complete autonomy and 
political life than was the rule in this other parts of Europe. All of these 
facts have impressed on the Italian nation certain marked features. Naples, 
for instance, is very different from Rome, and the Neapolitans are in 
their character and disposition as widely apart from the Romans as are 
the towns which they inhabit. It is considered sometimes hard to believe 
that the inhabitants of these two cities are the same people. The progress 
of railways and the unification of the laws of the country have done much 
to tone all Italy down to the same uniform level. 

A City Always Bent on Pleasure. 

But even yet when one sees the quiet, almost gloom, of the oldet 
streets of the purely native districts of Rome, and the eternal chattel- 
noise and revelry of the city by the Bay of Naples, the visitor feels that 
the mere fact of the one place having for years been governed by priests^ 
while the other was the " sink of Christendom," the haunt of pleasure to 
which the spendthrifts and plunderers of Europe hied with their hard- 
earned or ill-gotten gains, could not alone make the great difference which 
is patent to the least observant. Naples seems to be enjoying a continual 
carnival. The people as Mr. Justice Whiteside remarked many years ago 
— and the verdict is still as sound as ever — seem never to appear in their 
real characters ; the business of life is turned into a masquerade. The 
delightful climate in which they live may have had much influence on the 
habits of the Neapolitans, their want of education and of industry more. 

Naples is a thickly populated town. But to a stranger it seems more 
crowded than it really is, for as soon as the sun rises, the whole mass o' 
the inhabitants, men, women and children, rush with one consent into the 
streets, and continue there, shouting, grinning, dancing, or following their 
trades or occupations, till night drives them indoors. All the while little 
real business is done. For its size Naples has less trade than any similar 
city in the world. The people supply the want of business by never- 
ending noise and clamor. 

Italy Waking to a New Life. 

The New Italy of the last decade, is, however, a very different country 
from the drowsy land which for ages and ages old Italy was, under its 
tyrants and listless dilettanti. The whirl of spindles and the clang o\ 







52 




BRIDGE OF SIGHS, SHOWING THE PAI.ACE AND PRISON. 



(53) 



54 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



hammers are heard all over the realm. Sleepy cities are awakening to 
renewed life, and plains unploughed since the time of the Etruscans are 
once more being drained, and bloom with crops. And on the whole 
the revivers of what was at one time regarded as an effete people, though 
they have a long and an uphill task before them, have a fine material on 
which to work. Ages of oppression, centuries of grinding despotism, 
have implanted in the Italian mind those traits of duplicity, which, like 
lying, are the natural protection of the weak. An Italian is notoriously 
slippery, and bears the reputation of being the 
readiest to deceive when he appears the most 
friendly. 

Naples is emphatically the place where no man 
works, where the suffering of the poor inspires no 
sympathy, and the pleasures of the rich deserve no 
respect. The lazzaroni are not necessarily beggars. 
They are simply the mob, and may be fishermen, 
porters, messengers, and mendicants. Physically 
they are a fine race, and, as Mr. Whiteside remarks, 
seem always as if preparing to go to bed while 
pursuing their occupations in linen drawers and a 
night-cap, for they disdain shoes or stockings. 
Their gait is an amble between a walk and a run, 
and they are equally ready for playing or for fighting. 
Punch is a very important personage in Naples; he 
dresses up and retails the drolleries of the day ; he 
is the channel of the passing opinions, and could 
gain a mob or keep the whole kingdom in good 
humor. 

The fishermen who drag their nets at the end of 
the Villa Nazionale will suddenly drop their rather 
profitless business (the fishes are small and scanty), 
seat themselves on the beach and play with dirty 
cards, their gravity during the sport being more ludicrous than their 
merriment. Then a puppet-player comes with his pulcinella, and every 
one deserts the cards for the show, and suddenly — it used at all events 
to be the case when Naples was under the priests and the Bourbons — 
there will appear a monk with his crucifix, and, as Andersen so pictur- 
esquely describes the scene, all the crowd will drop on their knees, and 
even the puppet-player will cease his pantomime as the sacred sounds fall 
upon his ear. 




PEASANT WOMAN 
OF NAPLES. 



SUNNY ITALY. 



bb 



We have spoken of the Neapolitan fishermen. Those picturesque 
people who have been painted so many thousand times by the artists of 
every nation are especially lazzaroni. Thus they are poor people, foi 
though the occupation is far from profitable, the majority of the humble 
orders of Naples prefer it to any other. The work is easy when it iy 
divided among a greater num'^er of peoole. That is something. Then 
there is an irregularity in the toil, which, to the shiftless Neapolitan, is an 
irresistible attraction, for all continuous labor is irksome beyond measure^ 
and if the gains be small, little suffices for the 
wants of existence in a climate where the mere 
feeling of life is enjoyment. At best the fisherman 
can earn only a few pence a day, and as he is paid, 
not according to the length of his toil, but by the 
amount of profit he derives from his catch, the 
chances are that some days he earns nothing, and 
expects nothing from his employer. 

The fisherman is a rogue — he never denies it, 
and in tht. loose code of Neapolitan morals, the 
term is not offensive ; but he is amiable, and, in hi? 
way, charitable. It is nothing uncommon to see 
him and fifteen more drying a net when half of the 
number would have amply sufficed. However, the 
others would have been in that case unemployed 
and so their comrades -cheerfully share with them- 
the scanty gains of their united labor. In common 
with the humbler classes of Italians the fishermen 
are generally unambitious, dirty, and dishonest, fo: 
all of which faults the ready excuse is the wretched 
pittance which they earn by their precarious call- 
ing. Happily, however, they are not fastidious 
regarding their food: they eat the fishes they are 
unable to sell and some of the smaller species, 
and particularly a kind of transparent crab, they devour alive with the 
utmost nonchalance. 

When Attila, " the Scourge of God," invaded Northern Italy, A. D, 
452, leaving his track in ruined towns and desolated villages, a body 0/ 
Italians, natives of Venetia, a district of Lombardy, fled before him to the 
islands of their lagoons in company with some citizens of Padua. Attila 
succeeded in destroying many cities, but quite involuntarily he was the 
means of creating the fairest one that the world had ever seen. The* 




VENDER OF ICE WA 
TER NAPLES. 



56 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



islands to which these fugitives fled were formed at the head of the Adri- 
atic by means of mud and sand sent down by the rivers flowing from the 
Apennines and the Alps. On these islands — namely, Malamocco and 
Palestrina — the fugitive Veneti settled in peace and security, occupying 
themselves with their fisheries and salt works. By-and-by, however, as 
population increased, the people spread themselves over other islands, 
increased the means of subsistence, built substantial dwellings instead of 
the mean huts they at first erected, threw bridges across from island to 
island, and thus grew Venice, the " Queen ot the Adriatic." 




FAR-FAMED BEAUTIES OF VENICE. 

The Bridge of Sighs — immortalized by Byron, and which Howells 
designates as " that pathetic swindle " — is best seen from the Ponte della 
Paglia. The bridge is not in itselt ghastly or dreary, and derives its 
name from the fact that criminals were brought from the prison across 
this bridge in order to hear their sentences and meet their doom. The 
arrangements of the prison were spoken of approvingly by John Hov/ard 
the philanthropist, who inspected it in the course of his visits to the 
prisons of Europe. 

There is no more magnificent square in Europe or in the world than 
the Piazza San Marco. It is magnificent in itself; it is grand in its 



58 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

historical associations, as almost every event in the history of the Repub- 
lie was notified or celebrated here ; and it is crowded with objects of 
present interest. In the great open space hundreds of pigeons assemble 
to be fed at two o'clock at the expense of the State, in grateful remem- 
brance of services their ancestors rendered to Admiral Dandolo in con- 
veying important messages when he was besieging Candia in the thirteenth 
century. In the afternoon or evening, according to the season of the 
year, a band plays in the Piazza, and all Venice turns out to promenade. 
Here, too, on Sundays the Tombola, or Lottery is held — an amusement 
or business which has a strange fascination for the people. A writer, 
speaking of the Tombola as it was not many years ago, says : — " The 
ve:y mendicants speculated, and a kind of superstition existed which gave 
rise to an incessant, unwearying, elaborate, often fraudulent study on the 
finding or revealing of lucky numbers. They were dreamed of by night ; 
the Virgin was supplicated to point them out ; the cradles of infants were 
watched for signs ; the coffins of the dead were opened in search of some 
mysterious indication; and when any of the ticket-holders died, lively 
were the rejoicings in this camp of Mammon. Their ages, and days, and 
hours of birth were eagerly inquired and adopted as promises of luck." 
Here, too, the Carnival of Venice — once so celebrated, but now i-apidly 
degenerating — is held, and certainly no place in Italy — not even the Via 
di Po in Turin, admirable as that is — can vie with the Piazza in means for 
gorgeous illuminations and decorations. 

Famous Old Cliurclies of Venice. 

One of the greatest curiosities of Venice is the Church of the Jesuits, 
with walls, columns, floor, ceiling, altars, and pulpit made entirely of 
Carrara marble ingrained with verd antique — a most costly work, but the 
effect is only to deceive people into the idea that it is all of common 
tapestry. The Gli .Scalzi is also entirely of marble of the rarest and most 
lovely kinds, and is in such good taste and so marvelous in its effects, 
that the Venetians are prouder of it than of any other church, except 
St. Mark's. The Church of St. Pietro di Castello was, until the year, 
1807, the Cathedral Church of Venice ; it contains an old marble throne, 
said to have been the chair of St. Peter at Antioch, and is the scene of 
the legend of the " Brides of Venice."' 

It was an ancient usage among the Venetians for twelve poor virgins, 
endowed by the State, to be united to their lovers on St. Mary's Eve, in 
the Church of St. Peter, at Olivolo. On this auspicious day the parents, 
friends, and kinsfolk of the betrothed used to assemble on that island, and 
from an early hour barges, gaily decorated with flowers and streamers, 



SUNNY ITALY. 59 

might be seen gliding along the canals bearing the happy couplev their 
dowers and marriage presents. On one of these occasions, in the tenth 




PALACE FERRO, GRAND CANAL AND GONDOLA — VENICE. 

century, some daring corsairs of Trieste pounced upon the maidens as 
they stood at the altar, and bore them and their dowers away. The Doge 



60 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

or chief magistrate, summoned the people to arms, and a body of trunk- 
makers in the parish of Sta. Maria Formosa rushed to the rescue, over- 
took the delinquents, and, after releasing the maidens, inflicted a terrible 
retribution on the pirates. The brides came back to Olivolo with their 
treasure, and from that time forth for centuries an annual procession of 
young virgins, attended by the Doge and clergy, paid a visit of ceremony 
to the parish of Sta. Maria Formosa, where they received a hospitable 
welcome from the trunkmakers. 

Elegant Mosaic Work. 
It would be pleasant to linger awhile in some of the mosaic manufac- 
tories, and watch the modern processes in an art for which Venice has 
so long been famous. Mosaic work was brought to the Italians by the 
Byzantines, and the oldest pictures in Venice are in mosaic. Venice has 
also always been celebrated for her glass pearls, beads and other glass wares, 
made at one time in the city, but subsequei tly in the island of Muran^), 
where the glass furnaces were removed from the neighborhood of the 
Rialto on account of the numerous conflagrations they caused. Pleasant 
too it would be to visit the islands : Torcello, with its curious relics ; San 
Lazzaro, with its Armenian convent; the Lido, with its magnificent 
views of Venice on the one hand, and the mountains of Fruili, the Tyrol 
and the Alps on the other. 

But we can only take up the kaleidoscope and turn it once again to 
catch a few of the changing hues and colors of Venetian life and story. 
And what do we see ? We see Torquato Tasso, the immortal author of 
" Jerusalem Delivered," writin-T his stanzas, and delighting to hear them 
sung by the gondoliers. We see Galileo in 1609 scanning the heavens 
with his newly-invented telescope, an d then presenting it to the Doge 
Donato. We see Petrarch in his palace on the Grand Canal, appropriated 
to him by the State, receiving a visit from Boccaccio. We watch young 
Marco Polo conning over the rough map spread before him on a table, 
or playing at ships with his companions on the canals, or when all his 
voyages are over, receiving the homage of the Venitians on his return, 
and settling down as a member of the Grand Council. We gaze upon 
Ignatius Loyola again and again, passing through the narrow streets of 
Venice, sometimes begging his bread, and always sowing the seeds of the 
new doctrines which culminated in the establishment of the Order of 

Jesus. 

We enter at the house of Titian, whom kings and emperors delighted 
to honor, and see him surrounded with a gay and witty throng at one of 
his famous garden parties, and hear the sarcasm of Sansovino and the 



SUNNY ITALY. 



61 



Mid laughter of Aretino, the profligate poet ; or we look in later on, 
while the plague is raging, and the old man in the agony of death see«; 




his house robbed by ruffians, who are carrying away some of his choicest 
pictures as the eyes of the painter film in death. We see the first book 
printed in Italy issuing from the press at Venice, and note the excitement 



62 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



among the Venetians as they hold in their hands the " Gazette," the first 
newspaper ever pubhshed ; or watch the excitement on the Rialto when 
the first bill of exchange was issued, and the first bank of deposit opened 




ITALIAN PEASANT GIRL. 



We hear Malibran, Pasta, Catalini, Grisi, Rubini, singing in the Venice 
Opera House ; we see Byron meeting Teresa, Countess Guiccioli, for the 
first time at the palace of Madame Albrizzi ; we see Josephine ruling as 
Queen of Venetian society ; we mark old Doge Manin fall senseless as 



SUNNY ITALY. 63 

he is about to take the oath of allegiance to Austria ; and we hear the 
ringing shouts of gladness as the Venetians welcome Victor Emanuel, 
King of Italy. 

The Swiss Italiau Lakes. 

Not all the beauties of Italy are confined to the towns. Italian scenery 
is celebrated the world over for its picturesque beauty. Of the four prin- 
cipal lakes — Como, Lugano, Maggiore, and Orta — Orta is the smallest 
and the most beautiful. Each lake, however, has its peculiar and dis- 
tinctive charm, and so much depends upon atmospheric effects, upon the 
passing shades of feeling in the tourist's mind, and innumerable other 
circumstances which make up the sum-total of enjoyment, that it is 
difficult to express a preference which may be reversed at the next visit. 

I saw the Orta for the first time, says a recent traveler, under excep- 
tionally favorable circumstances. We left Omegna late in the afternoon, 
and when about half way across the lake the sun went down in such a 
blaze of glory as I have never seen before or since. The whole atmos- 
phere seemed flooded, saturated with golden light. The mountains 
which inclose the lake passed through all shades of color from blue to 
deep rich purple. It was a f^te day at some village on the banks, and 
the songs of revelers came faintly borne on the breeze, or, mingled with 
merry laughter, rang out from the boats on the lake. We told our row- 
ers to slacken their speed, and lying back on the cushioned seats, listened 
to those sweet sounds, gazed on those lovely scenes, and were lulled by 
the rhythmic beat and tinkling dip of the oars as they softly rose and fell. 

Then came the night — and such a night ! The sky was crystalline in 
its clearness, and thick-sown with stars. The Milky-way was lustrous 
with light. The crescent moon was mirrored in th^ hlu^ waters of the 
lake with wonderful vividness. 

"The moon is up, and yet it is not night ; 

Sunset divides the sky with her — a sea 

Of glory streams along the Alpine height 

Of blue Friuli's mountains ; heaven is free 

From clouds, but of all colors seems to be 

Melted to one vast Iris of the West, 

AVhere the day joins the past eternity ; 

"While on the other hand, meek Dian's crest 
Floats through the azure air — an island of the blest ? 

" A single star is at her side, and reigns 
With her o'er half the lovely heaven ; but still 
Yon sunny sea heaves brightly, and remains 
Rolled o'er the peak of the far Rhcetian hill, 



64 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

As day and night contending were, until 
Nature reclaimed her order ; — gently flows 
The deep-dyed Brenta, where their hues instil 
The odorous purple of a new-born rose, 
Which streams upon her stream, and glassed within it gio^w, 

" Filled with the face of heaven, which, from afar, 
Comes down upon the waters ; all its hues. 
From the rich sunset to the rising star, 
Their magical variety diffuse : 
And now they change ; a paler shadow strews 
Its mantle o'er the mountains ; parting day 
Dies like the dolphin, which each pang imbues 
With a new color as it gasps away. 
The last still loveliest, till — 'tis gone — 3 :d all is gray." 

In nothing do judgments vary more th^n respecting the Borromean 
Islands in Maggiore. Hazlitt sneers at the Isola Bella " as a piece of con- 
fectionery hung about with wreaths of flowers," and Matthews glorifies it 
as " the magic creation of labor and taste — a fairy land which might serve 
as a model for the gardens of Calypso." De Saussure thought it " a mag- 
nificent caprice, a sublime conception, a sort of creation ; " to Simond it 
suggested " a Perigord pie stuck round with heads of game." Most visi- 
tors will assent to the truth of Murray's criticism : " To taste it may have 
little pretension ; but to a traveler fresh from the rigid climate of the 
North this singular creation of art, with its aromatic groves, its aloes and 
cactuses starting out of the rocks, and, above all, its glorious situation 
bathed by the dark-blue waters jf the lake, reflecting the sparkling white 
villages on its banks, and the distant snows of the Alps, cannot fail to 

afford pleasure." 

liovellness of Italian Scenery. 

Even the most cynical and censorious will admit that the views from 
the terraces combine everything that can be imagined as the perfection 
of a romantic and luxurious abode. The deep, clear, blue wat'^r laps 
gently round the rocks. Vistas of distant, sunny hills and valleys open 
out from beneath the shade of bowers of roses, through gaps in the olive 
and the cactus. Purple mountains and snow peaks glitter from afar 
through the flickering leaves and blossoms of an orange-grove. It may 
be a mere piece of confectionery, in execrable taste, but there is no deny- 
ing that it is a lovely spot. Indeed, the wonderful Italian sky is almost 
equal to rendering any spot lovely. If there is no beauty of landscape 
around, there is always beauty in the sky above. The deep, clear blue 
overhead, the remarkable purity of the atmosphere, and the brilliancy of 
the sunlight combine to charm the tourist. 



POLE TO POLE. 



65 



Italy, after making allowance for classical rhapsody, is a delectable 

^jg^^r^^jj;^,^— 3--- - — 'S'^^JSi^, country for those who 

fT^'r^""^^*" "iwjJF: v=-.ist^ call bear heat. Yet 

I ^ the winter climate is 

so cold that visitors 
from the North com- 
plain of what the Ro- 
man poets styled the 
" biting frost," and 
even in summer the 
midday sun is no 
criterion of the chilly 
damp which so often 
creeps over the land- 
scape after dark. The 
sun is indeed more 
trying than the cold, 
and an Italian proverb 
declares that only 
" dogs and English- 
men " walk in it, 
" Christians " — that 
is, of course, them- 
selves — preferring 
the shade. 

Italy, altogether, is 

a treacherous land for 

the invalid, though its 

balmy atmosphere» 

attractive open-air 

sights, and pleasing 

associations, will 

never fail to draw to 

it visitors from every 

land, which has any 

claims to be a sharer 

in the glorious legacy 

PEASANT WOMAN OF BiASSA, NEAR SPEZIA. which the mistress of 

the world has bequeathed to civilization. Like Spain, Italy nurtures 

nearly every product. On the higher mountains the ibex and the 

5 




66 



SUNNY ITALY. 



chamors find their homes beside the glaciers ; lower down snow is rarely 
seen, and by evening the tourist who has lunched in the Arctic regions 
may sup in a valley fragrant with orange groves, and other tropical and 
semi-tropical fruits. 

The southern part of the peninsula, as well as the off-lying islands like 
Sicily, are almost tropical. The sky is never clouded, and the tempera- 
ture rarely falls to the freezing point, except when the chilly mountain 
gale, or the Adriatic north-wind blows, or when the sirocco of the African 
deserts raises the mercury to fever heat. The sugar-cane, the banyan, 
and the dwarf palm flourish everywhere in the open air, while the gardens 
are luxuriant with olives, grape-vines, pine-apples and bananas. In such 
a country, were the industry of the people equal to their opportunities, 
riches ought to be abundant. The farmers of Tuscany and Lombardy are 
the principal rearers of the twelve or thirteen million pounds' weight of 
silk which are produced yearly. Agriculture occupies the greatest num- 
ber of the people. Two-thirds of the country is under some kind of 
culture, and over the mountain pastures and great plains, like the Cam- 
pagna, roam vast herds of neat cattle, swine, mules and the buffalo, which 
in the recollecticn of every visitor to Italy is so associated with that 
region. The rivers abound a /ith fish, as does the sea laving either shore 
of the peninsula. The sponge and coral fisheries are noted sources of 
Italian wealth, and though iron, zinc and lead are worked and exported, 
the mineral wealth of the country is as yet little developed. 




CHAPTER IV. 
PICTURESQUE VIEWS IN GREECE. 

Ancient Greek Empire — Physical Characteristics of the People — Fine Heads and Fea- 
tures—Domestic Cheerfulness and Frugality — Greek Women — Styles of Dress — 
Every Man Claims You for a '' Brother" — Renowned Corinth — The Ancient City 
- Commercial Importance — Worship of Venus — Immoral Practices — Old Roman 
Relics — The Isthmian Games — Classic Athens — Celebrated Acropolis — Imposing 
Rock — Costumes of Athenians — Red Waistcoats and Calico Trousers — Handsome 
Men — Public Buildmgs — Attractive Garden — Greek House of Parliament — Pas 
sion of the Athenians for Politics— Curious Bazaar — Funeral Cus- 
toms Among the Greeks. 

HE Greek family comprises the Greeks and the Albanians. 
These races derive their origin from the ancient tribes 
known under the name of Pelasgians. The Ancient 
Greeks founded many colonies on the shores of the 
Mediterranean. In the fourth century before Christ, led 
by Alexander, they subdued part of Asia, and carried 
their victorious arms into Egypt. But these conquests 
were ephemeral. The Greek empire was in its turn sub- 
jugated by other races, of whom the principal were the 
Romans, the Slavonians, and the Scythians. 

In the present day the Greeks compose but a scanty population. The 
majority of the people w^ho inhabit the Asiatic continent have adopted 
even the language of the neighbors, and are merely reputed Greeks be- 
cause they profess the Greek form of the Christian religion. 

The ancient Greeks, civilized by intercourse with Egyptian colonists, 
already afforded an example of advanced culture, at a time when the other 
European and Asiatic nations were still immersed in barbarism. 

In spite of the misfortunes of a social decay destined to terminate in 
many centuries of subjection, the Greeks have preserved up to our own 
day the physical characteristics of their ancestors. Everyone knows that 
the most beautiful development of the brow, the finest shape of the 
human head, is what we find traced in the sculpture of ancient Greece. It 
had been supposed that the magnificent heads with the noble outlines, 
admired in the statues of the Greeks, were not the exact reproduction of 
nature, and that some features had been exaggerated in the direction of 
ideal beauty. But in our own day, the skulls of ancient Greeks have 

67 




G8 PICTURESQUE VIEWS IN GREECE. 

been found whose proportions and whose general outlines demonstrate 
that among the artists of ancient Greece, sculpture did not surpass nature, 
but restricted its inspiration to types who actually lived. 

Frugal Livers. 

The Greek disposition is naturally cheerful, and a people so fond of 
amusement are not apt to fall into melancholy. Hence suicide is very 
rare in Greece. Add to this the fact that both in eating and drinking they 
are very moderate, and we are enabled to get some inkling of what the 
modern Greeks are. Nearly every portion of the country which they 
inhabit provides more or less wine ; yet few of them drink much. The 
country is capable of raising crops of every description, and food is far 
from dear. But the amount of meat which a laborer eats at his one 
meal a day would be regarded in any other part of Europe as an approach 
to starvation. Even well-to-do people seldom take more than two spare 
meals in the twenty-four hours, and often a peasant owning his farm may 
be seen dining with much content on a little maize or other vegetables 
steeped in oil. 

No country is comparable with Greece, and naturally in their own 
esteem the Greeks are more than comparable with any other people. In 
their relations democracy of the fullest kind prevails. Every common 
mule-boy is a gentleman, and fully your equal, sitting in the room at 
meals, and joining in the conversation at dinner. Every one, high or 
low, is his "brother," and to the traveler accustomed for a social inferior 
to keep in his " proper station," it is at first a little irritating to be ad- 
dressed as "brother" by a stranger, perhaps not very honest, but unques- 
tionably very dirty. To these traits in their character — to their egotism 
and love of ostentation — may be due the circumstance that the Greek, 
though temperate in his dietary, is a much more expensive person as re- 
gards his clothing and household goods than either the Turk or the 
Bulgarian. No Greek who can afford a coat of fine cloth, with stockings 
and shoes, would submit to wear coarse clothing, and if he can at all 
compass them, will make a point of having tables, table linen, knives and 
forks. Nor, except in the humbler establishments, does the bedding 
consist solely of rags, as among the Bulgarians ; and their houses, if 
often lacking much in the way of cleanliness and comfort, are usually 
better built and more pretentious than those of their neighbors. 
Superiority of Greek Women. 
The women do not so frequently work in the fields. In appearance 
they are pretty, and in their dress careful, and even elegant. In Greece, 
females are fewer in number than the males, and there accordingly the 



PICTURESQUE VIEWS IN GREECE. 69 

spcj»se, 1:hough subservient and docile enough, is in the habit of holding 
herself higher than in those countries where she is little better than 
bouj;^ht. They are also said :;o be good wives and mothers, and as the 
Greek is in the habit of leaving his home for long periods at a time, the 
helpmate has to manage his affairs daring his absence. In the cities, 
the wealthy Greeks live very much like any other Europeans, and have 
few customs peculiar to themselves. They readily imbibe modern ideas 
and modern refin ^rnent, and wherever they are found are celebrated for 
their hospitality and pleasant ways. 

A Remarkable City. 

Famous among the rjld Grecian cities was Corinth, and still famous 
arc her ruins. 

The city of Corinth is alike remarkable for its distinctive geographical 
position, its eminence in Greek and Roman history, and its close con- 
nection with the early sp ead of Christianity. But, besides this, the site 
of Corinth is distinguished by a conspicuous physical feature, namelyi 
a vast citadel of rock, which rises abruptly to the height of 2000 feet 
above the level of the sea, and the summit of which is so extensive that 
it once contained a whole town. The situation of Corinth, and the pos- 
session of those eastern nnd western harbors, are the secrets of her 
history. The earliest passage in her progress to eminence was probably 
Phoenician. But at the most remote period of which we have any sure 
record we find the Greeks established here in z position of wealth and 
military strength. 

Corinth was a place of great mental activity, as well as of commercial 
and manufacturing enterprise. Its wealth was so celebrated as to be 
proverbial ; so were the vice and profligacy of its inhabitants. The wor- 
ship of Venus was here attended with a shameful licentiousness. The 
city has now shrunk to a wretched village, on the old site, and bearing 
the old name. 

Pausanius, in describing the antiquities of Corinth as they existed in 
his day, distinguishes clearly between those which belonged to the old 
Greek city, and those which were of Roman origin. Two relics of 
Roman work are still to be seen, one a heap of brick-work which may 
have been part of the baths erected by Hadrian, the other the remains 
of an amphitheatre with subterranean arrangements for gladiators. Far 
more interesting are the ruins of the ancient Greek temple, the oldest of 
which any remains are left in Greece. 

This description would be incomplete without some notice of the Po- 
sidonium, or sanctuary of Neptune, the scene of the Isthmian games. 



TO 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



This sanctuary was a short distance to the northeast of Corinth, at the 
narrowest part of the Isthmus, near the harbor of the Saronic Gulf. The 
exact site of the temple is doubtful ; but to the south are the remains of 
the stadium, where the foot races were run ; to the east are those of the 
theatre, which was probably the scene of the pugilistic contests ; and 
abundant on the shore are the small green pine-trees which gave the 
fading wreath to the victors in the games. 

Athens is situated four or iive miles from the sea. Her plain is shut 
in on every side by mountains except on the south, where it is open to 
the coast, laved by the waters of Saronic Gulf, in which were the harbors 
of Athens. In the plain rises abruptly the square, craggy rock of the 
Acropolis, with its broad, flat summit. About a mile southward is Mount 



IBT 




^i^'"^ ' ^ "% 1 y.^''y-!%\\\ ^#a^H 




THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS, AS IT WAS. 

Lycabettus, with its conical peak, now called the Hill of St. George. This 

is the most striking natural feature of the neighborhood of Athens. It 

is to Athens what Vesuvius is to Naples, or Arthur's Seat to Edinburgh. 

There are three other hills of moderate elevation to the south-west of 

Lycabettus, which are known as the Areopagus, the Pnyx, and the 

Museum. Milton has, with the utmost accuracy, described Athens in 

the passage commencing — 

" On the ^gean Sea a city stands, 

Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil.'* 

The purity and freshness of the Athenian atmosphere have been cele- 
brated with every epithet of praise. Travelers speak of the transparent 
clearness and brilliant coloring of the sky. Bishop Wordsworth thus 
speaks of the soil : " The buildings of the city possessed a property pro- 



PICTURESQUE VIEWS IN GREECE. 71 

duced immediately by the Athenian soil. Athens stands on a bed of 
hard limestone rock, in most places thinly covered by a meagre surface 
of soil. From this surface the rock itself frequently projects, and almost 
always is visible. Athenian ingenuity suggested, and Athenian dexterity 
has realized, the adaptation of such a soil to architectural purposes. Of 
this there remains the fullest evidence. In the rocky soil itself walls 
have been hewn, pavements levelled, steps and seats chiseled, cisterns ex- 
cavated, and niches scooped ; almost every object that in a simple state 
of society would be necessary, either for public or private fabrics, was 
thus, as it were, quarried in the soil of the city itself." 

A Famous Old Kock. 

The Acropolis was the citadel which was erected on the highest point 
in the city. In the eailiest period the city of Athens was doubtless con- 
fined to this rock of the Acropolis, and gradually the Athenians, extended 
themselves over the neighboring hills«and the plain. From its isolated 
position, and from the thinness of the soil, which offered no powerful in- 
ducement to immigrating races, the inhabitants were allowed to hold 
their lands undisturbed. The Athenians have, consequently, little thai- 
approaches to that stirring cycle of legend associated with the Dorian 
race of the Peloponnesus. They boasted of themselves that they were 
Autochthones, that is, children of the soil, and this was always their 
favorite title. It is said that the original city on the AcropoHs was built 
by Cecrops, and called Cecropia, and the people were called Cecropidae. 

The Pelasgians fortified the whole of their craggy rock, and a portion 
of the walls was afterwards called the Pelasgium ; and more especially a 
space of ground under the north side was so called, and was left unin- 
habited. Cecrops is said to have divided Attica into twelve cities, each 
of which had its own magistrate and its own town-hall, called the Pry- 
taneum ; these cities acknowledged the supremacy of Athens, but acted 
with perfect independence, and even made war upon each other. 

Among the successors of Cecrops the name of Erectheus I., or Erich- 
thonius, has been preserved. He is said to have dedicated a temple to 
Athene on the Acropolis, and from the prominence which he gave to the 
worship of Athene, the people were henceforth called Athenians. In 
this temple he set up the image of the goddess, "lade of olive wood, 
which was considered the most sacred object in Athens. He was buried 
in the temple which was afterwards known as the Erectheum. 

It was after the time of Erectheus that the old city spread from the 
mount of the Acropolis over the wide and pleasant vale or low peninsula, 
formed by the junction of the Cephesus and Ilissus. In the course of 



12 



f ROM POLE TO POL^. 



time Athens became populous and surpassingly elegant in its architecture, 
whilst its citizens contrived to take the lead in all the communities around. 
One of their most singular domestic institutions was the Areopagus, a 
court which, besides its other duties, exercised a censorship over public 
morals, and was empowered to punish profligacy, impiety, and even idle- 
ness. To this court every citizen was bound to make an annual state- 
ment of his income, and the sources from which it was derived. The 
court was long regarded with very great respect, and the right was 




RUINS OF THE ACROPOLIS ATHENS. 

accorded to it of not only revising the sentences pronounced by the other 
criminal tribunals, but even of annulling the judicial decrees of the gen- 
eral assembly of the people. The Areopagus was at length abolished, 
but the republican form of government was maintained as long as Athens 
retained her independence. After this period the city passed through 
the usual career of the ancient empires, and after a long period of pros- 
perity and luxury, which enervated the morale and stamina of her people, 
became the prey, first of intestine divisions, and then of foreign conquest. 
Where else in the world is there so much " to see " in the same area, 
or so much to " feel," as in Athens? The very "dust you tread once 



PICTURESQUE VIEWS IN GREECE. 



73 



breathed," and every tree and valley and stream, every road and street, 
every mound and grotto, every broken column and ruined shaft, has a 
story or a memory associated with the most glorious period in the 
history of the ancient world. 

One of the great attractions of a stroll through modern Athens is to 
note the variety of costumes. The most curious and most striking is the 
Albanian, which the Greeks have adopted as their national dress. It 
consists of a blue or black jacket, cut away, with open sleeves, and rich 
embroidery; a red waistcoat, and a white embroidered shirt. The 




RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF VICTORY ATHENS, 

breeches are of blue, close-fitting; stockings of white or blue; red gait- 
ers, and red leather shoes without heels, pointed, upturned, and long. 
Round the waist is a leathern girdle from which protrudes an alarming 
display of pistols and knives such as are affected by the Bedawin ; the 
head is covered with a high fez, or pointed red flannel cap, terminating 
with a long silk tassel, which sways about as the wearer walks. 

The principal part of the dress is the white " fustanella," a kilted skirt 
of linen, starched, and worn over the breeches. Sometimes as many as 
sixty yards of white linen are used in a " fustanella," and the effect is 



T4 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

rather that of a burlesque on a ballet dancer's costume. It is a curious 
sight for foreigners to see a Highland regiment march out, but it is a 
far more curious sight to see the Greek national corps parade in this 
feminine, but picturesque and extravagant, costume. 

The Greek artisan wears a costume not unlike the Turkish, consisting 
of a short dark jacket, red waistcoat, very wide calico trousers, worn 
short, and generally blue ; bare legs, and buckled shoes. This is also 
the dress of the Cretans, with the exception that instead of wearing 
shoes, they have high boots, which hide the bare legs and give a better 
appearance. Sometimes ladies may be seen wearing the national red 
cap, or the Thessalian head-dress — a tiara of gold and a veil thrown 
back — but as a rule they dress in Parisian style. The peasant women 
almost invariably wear the Albanian costume, and very striking it is, con- 
sisting of a long embroidered petticoat, and a white woolen dress over 
it, while on their heads and necks are chains of coins. 

It is to be regretted that the picturesque dresses of Greek women are 
not set off by pretty faces ; but you may stay a month in Athens without 
ever seeing a face to remind you of the beauty for which they were once 
%mous. The men, curiously enough, are singularly handsome. 
Fine Buildings and Pulblic Gardens. 

Without attempting to describe the order in which the public buildings 
of modern Athens may be best seen, it will interest the reader to know 
something about the buildings themselves. 

The Palace is a large quadrangular building, 300 feet long by 280 
broad, and is not a thing of beauty. It was designed by Gaertner, built 
in 1834-8, and the front is of white Pentelic marble. But it is large and 
olain ; imposing and unattractive. It is, however, very pleasantly situa 
ted. Immediately in front is a large garden, and beyond is Palace 
Square, a fine open space with a pavilion in the centre, while at the back 
of the Palace is a charming garden laid out by Queen Amalia, on a piece 
of ground that was utterly barren. 

In one part of the garden there are fine palm-trees, and near to them a 
roCk, from which there is a view to the Olympieum and the sea. Shady 
groves, a tasteful pond, a large Roman mosaic, and a small museum of 
relics are among the attractions ; but to the majority of visitors — who are 
admitted to the garden in the afternoon — the chief attraction is the shady 
walks, Athens being almost destitute of trees. 

The Greek House of Parliament is not in itself much, but it is interest- 
ing as the theatre of many stormy scenes in recent times. The Greeks 
are hot politicians, and fiery debaters. They talk over .matters of non- 



PICTURESQUE VIEWS IN GREECE. 



75 



vital importance with a marvelous enthusiasm, fervor, and violence of 
gesture, so that if the Parliament is in session, transacting business 
which ^alls for no wild excitement, and the visitor chances to be 
in the House for the 
first time when a sub- 
ject is under discussion 
relating to some very 
trivial matter, he would 
be under the impres- 
sion, from the vehe- 
mence of the speakers 
and the excited inter- 
ruptions of the audi- 
ence, that the destiny 
of the kingdom was on 
the turn of the scale. 
When a great question 
is pending in the 
House, every cafe in 
the town is a reflex of 
it. Groups of men, in 
passionate tones, and 
with energy of action, 
such as the boulevards 
of Paris rarely witness, 
talk over the politics 
of the day, while a 
crowd of eager listen- 
ers applaud or inter- 
rupt. One of our 
American writers 
says, in relation to the 
passion of the Atheni- 
ans for politics: "With 
a territory but three- 
fifths as great as that 
of New York, with a 
population only about twice as great as that of Philadelphia, namely, 
two millions, with universal suffrage, and with a monarchy so limited that 
the government is in reality a democracy in the administration of its in- 




gre1':k woman of arcadia. 



76 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

ternal affairs, the Greek nation of to-day devotes ten times too much 
energy to governing itself. This concentration of force within narrow 
hmits begets heat at Athens. Under such pressure the political friction 
is something enormous. Athens supports from thirty to forty news- 
papers. Political clubs are more numerous than in classic days, and as 
influential. Every man of prominence has his newspaper, his club of 
personal followers, his petty party." 

Among the things which arrest attention in a walk through Athens, 
may be mentioned the Bazaar, which presents a scene as animated and 
curious as in many Oriental towns. The bustle is unceasing , and the 
mingling of many colors in costumes ; the rapid talking of hundreds of 
nervous, energetic, and apparently excited people ; the strange wares of- 
fered for sale, and the appearance of the tradesmen and artisans, who sit 
cross-legged in open booths on either side of the street, present a scene 
which may be studied to advantage by artists. The city does not pro- 
duce much, and, as a matter of fact, Greece has no manufactories ; nor, 
if it had, would great benefit accrue, until a better system o^ inter-com- 
munication were invented. 

Mag-nificent Funeral Processions. 

Public funerals of patriots and political leader'^ are celebrated in Ath- 
ens with great splendor, and the bands of muiic, chanting boys and 
priests, sacred banners, and the gold-embroidered robes of white, purple, 
and scarlet of the dignitaries of the Church, produce a fine effect. It is 
the custom, at all funerals in Athens, to carry the body through the 
streets on an open bier, and generally with the clothes ordinarily worn 
when alive. It is a startling sight to come upon a procession when the 
body of some young lady, dressed in pale blue or other colored garment, 
her head garlanded with flowers, he/ bare arms, perhaps, crossed peace- 
fully upon her bosom, is borne on the shoulders of stalwart young men, 
through the busy streets where all the exuberance of lifi, and activity is 

'^ilayed. 

There are many poor people in Athens, although fewer beggars than 
are to be met with in many other cities where Lhey would be less ex- 
pected; and one is struck with the exceptional number of men — espe- 
cially on the outskirts of the city — who seem to have nothing whatever 
to do. In the poor quarters of the city, the stone hovels of the people 
present a very woe-begone appearance, and are as dirty as any to be 
found in Egypt. A curious custom, or law, prevails among the people. 
" Their huts," says a recent writer, " are constantly encroaching upon 
the vacant land on the slopes of the rocky citadel. The land is the prop- 



78 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



erty of the Government, and no one Has a right to build upon it. Bat 
there is at Athens, either a law or a prescriptive right, which prevents 
the removal or destruction of a house once ouilt and occupied. Taking 
advantage of this, a couple newly married notify their friends, material 
is quickly got together, and on the appointed night, as silently as may 
be, the simple house is erected between the dark and dawn, the hands of 
scores of friends making light work ; and, with such household goods as 
they can boast, the young householders take possession at once. Then, 
from the sacred home altar, they safely answer the questions of the offi- 
cers of the law, should any notice be taken of the trespass. 

" As you gaze down upon these simple homes from the Acropolis, in 
the earliest dawn of a summer morning, and see the inmates, roused from 
a night's rest (often passed beneath the open sky, on the flat roof, or be- 
side the humble door,) light a little fire in the open air and prepare their 
frugal meal — as you see how pathetically those little houses seem to , 
cling like suppliants about the knees of the marble-crowned, world-fa- 
mous Rock of Athens, it takes little fancy to imagine that these homes 
of the poor have crept for protection beneath the mightv shadow of the 
stronghold of liberty in Athens' glorious past." 




CHAPTER V. 
TRAVELS IN SPAIN. 

Origin of the Spanish Race — Mountains of Spain — Variety of Precious Metals — Cli- 
mate— Fondness for Show — Carrying Arms — Personal Pride and Courage — A 
Famous Palace— Philip II. and his Passion for Building — Burial Place for Kings — 
A Majestic Structure — Beautiful Chapel — Curious Stories about Relics — French 
Spoliation — Madrid — Places of Amusement — The Spaniard's Fondness for Tra- 
gedy and Blood — The Madrid Bull-ring — Vast Assemblages to see a Bull-fight — 
A Shocking Spectacle — Torturing the Beast — The Final Spear-Thrust — Sights in 
the Streets of Madrid — Lazy Smokers — Water and Cake Vender — Rock of Gib- 
raltar — Impregnable Fortress— Key to the Mediterranean — Steep Sides and Strong 
Defenses — Ancient Contests for the Stronghold — Held by the 
British for Nearly Two Hundred Years. 

HE Spaniards result from the mixture of the Latins with 
the Celts, whom they succeeded in Spain, and with the 
Teutons, who drove out the Romans. Washed on three 
sides by the sea, divided from France on the north by the 
Pyrenees, and from Africa on the south by a narrow 
stretch, of sea, Spain is crossed by ranges of mountains, 
which, by their various intersections, form valleys per- 
mitting only difficult communication with each other. 
The mountains of Spain are one of the principal causes of 
the richness of this country. They contain a variety of precious metals, and 
the streamlets which flow from their summits fertilize the valleys and 
develop into large rivers. 

The climate of Spain indicates the vicinity of Africa. The air during 
winter is cold, dry, and sharp ; during the summer it is scorching. The 
leaves of the trees are stiff and shining, the branches knotty and con- 
torted, the bark dry and rugged. The fruits mingle with their perfume 
a sharp and acid flavor ; the animals are lean and wild. Nature, there- 
fore, in Spain, is somewhat violent and rude, and this characteristic is 
peculiar to the people of the country. 

The Spaniard, like the African, is in general of moderate height. His 
skin is brown, and his limbs are muscular, compact, and supple. In a 
moral sense, passion with him obtains the mastery ; indeed, it is quite 
impossible for him to master or dissemble his feelings. He is not afraid 
to allow their workings to become evident, but, in their display, if they 

79 




80 FROM P01.E TO POLE. 

meet with curiosity or admiration he passes all bounds and becomes a 
perfect spectacle. A Spaniard always allows his feelings to be plainly 
perceptible. 

This habitual weakness for scenic display, which in a people possessing 
evil instincts would be excessively inconvenient, produces in the Span- 
iard the best results, since at heart he is full of generosity and nobleness. 
It endows him with pride, from which spring exalted feelings and good 
actions; emulation, which prompts him to outdo himself; a moral toir^, 
generosity, dignity and discretion. Nowhere are better understood tha.i 
in Spain the regard due to age or sex, and the respect called for by rank 

or position. 

Settling Disputes with Knife and Sw^ord. 

The pride of the Spaniard renders him very tenacious as regards his 
honor. He brooks not insult, and seeks to requite it A^ith bloodshed. 
His hand flies to the sword which is to avonge his honor, or the knife 
which is to settle his disputes. In Spain arms are carried by all, and 
their habitual contact — too much neglected in other countries — imparts 
to each the desire for glory or the hope of playing a leading part in the 
world. 

Such being his disposition, the Spaniard ca mot fail to make an excel- 
lent soldier. Besides having taste and apti\ ude for the use of arms, 
he is vigorous, agile and patient; and therefore worthy to be named hon- 
orably in comparison with the French soldier. It is, however, difficult to 
preserve discipline among these fiery and independent men. They are 
not always easy to command in time of regular warfare, and when times 
become troublesome, they become rapidly converted into guerillas, a 
term whi'^h is almost synonymous with brigand. 

The Palace of the Escurlal. 

The Palace of the Escurial, the royal residence of the Spanish sover- 
eigns, is about thirty-five miles from Madrid, on the northern line of rail- 
way. Its situation, though ill suited for a residence, is very grand as a 
piece of natural scenery. It stands with a vast sweep of barren moor in 
front, which stretches away into the distance ir almost endless undula- 
tions. Behind it rises a range of hills of noble height and form, dark and 
savage in the foreground, till, as they recede into the distance, they melt 
into a tender, delicious blue. The sceneiy is like that of the Highlands 
of Scotland. Mr. Sala speaks of it as " a background of mountain scenery 
more beautiful and sublime than any I have seen out of Mexico." 

It affords a striking illustration of the immense size of the Escurial 
that even in such a situation as this it looks massive and imposing. An 



TRAVELS IN SPAIN. 



81 



ordinary palace would be dwarfed into insignificance in this waste of 
moorland and mountain. The stern and severe simplicity of its archi- 
tecture, almost without decoration or ornamentation of any kind, is in 
harmony with the scene, and adds to its impressiveness. 




The Escurial was built by Philip II., originally with the view of found- 
ing a magnificant burial-place for the Spanish sovereigns ; but as he pro- 
ceeded his plans were enlarged, and not only was it formed to receive 
.>.e royal dead, but it was also designed as a splendid though most 
gloomy residence for them during their lives. Building became Ws 



82 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

favorite pursuit, and the immense pile rose gradually under his auspices. 
For nineteen years after its completion (it was nearly twenty-two years 
before it was finished) did this singular sovereign reside within its melan- 
choly walls, and finally he died there in 1598. 

As it first appears in sight the palace has a very imposing effect, but a 
nearer approach rather lessens these first impressions. It has too mod- 
ern an aspect, though this in reality arises from the materials used in 
the building, which have in no way suffered from the lapse of time. Still, 
even on a near approach, it is very fine. The severity and simplicity of 
taste apparent in the stately pile give a certain grandeur of effect that is 
very striking on a first view. Its situation is in perfect keeping with its 
style of architecture. It is, as it were, actually built on the rocks ; 
and, unlike any other royal palace, it has no external embellishments 
of luxuriant nature to set it off: all is rugged, and grand, and melan- 
choly. The gray granite of which it is composed makes one shudder. 

A Marvelous Edifice. 

The grand entrance is never opened excepting to admit the reigning 
sovereign, or the corpse of the monarch when brought there for inter- 
ment. The sight of the chapel of the Escurial is impressive. Instead of 
entering it by stately portals, as is usually the case, this sacred edifice is 
approached from a dark passage. As one emerges from it, and stands at 
the arched entrance, it is impossible to describe the effect produced by 
its simple majesty. After a while, you begin to wonder what it is that 
has produced so startling an impression. There is no ornament of any 
kind — nothing to interfere with the solemn feeling that one stands in a 
building consecrated to the worship of the Almighty: there is nothing to 
diminish the grandeur of the idea. All is solemn and imposing ; every 
thing trifling seems banished. One can hardly understand how a Roman 
Catholic chapel can have preserved such severe simplicity in everything 
belonging to it. Truly the architect of that chapel was a master in his 
profession. There are none of those puerile decorations which, in Spain, 
so often mar the beauty of the churches; but all is in severe taste, from 
the sombre black-and-white pavement to the beautiful screens of bronze 
and jasper. 

After gazing at this beautiful chapel the visitor is but little inclined to 
listen to the legends poured forth by the guides, of the relics collected 
by the " pious founder." They are said to have amounted to between 
seven and eight thousand. Peyron enumerates eleven whole bodies, 
three hundred heads, six hundred legs and arms, three hundred and forty- 
six veins and arteries, fourteen hundred odd bits, teeth, toes, etc. When 



TRAVELS IN SPAIN. 



83 



the French were here in 1808 they stripped off the gold and precioub 
stones from the shrine, carried away the shrine, and tied up the reHcs in 
a table-cloth, sending them with a polite note to the prior. 

The " Panteon," or royal sepulchre, is under the chapel, and is so 
arranged that the royal dead lie immediately below the high altar. Like 
all the edifices in Spain which are not in actual occupation, the Escurial 
seems falling out of repair. On every side are traces of dilapidation. If 
speedy means be not taken to arrest the progress of decay, this immense 
palace, convent, and sepulchre will soon become a ruin, like the kingdom 
of which it is at once the centre and the type, 

Madrid, in the opinion of some travelers, is, in the matter of theatre* 




BULL-FIGHTERS NARROW ESCAPE BY LEAPING THE BARRIER. 

and shows, the first city in the world. Besides the Italian Opera, the 
Teatro Espafiol, the Zarzuela, and the Circo — all theatres of the first rank 
as regards size, elegance, and public appreciation — there are a large num- 
ber of small theatres, with dramatic and equestrian troupes — theatres to 
suit all purses and all tastes, and always full every evening. Masked 
balls are frequent and largely attended. But your Spaniard likes his 
amusements best when there is a dash of savagery in them. So the circus 
for cock-fighting is well patronized, and heavy are the bets as to whether 
some wretched fowl in its death-agony will move its head once more or 
not. But there is yet another barbaric sport to which the people rush 
with enthusiasm — we mean, of course, the famous bull-fights. Ladies 



84 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

are not now present so universally as was once the case, and the royal 
family of Spain scarcely ever attend. 

According to tradition, it was the Cid Campeador who first couched 
his lance against a bull in the arena. From that time forth the young 
nobility of Spain took up the spori" with ardor ; there were bull-fights at 
all great festivals in which only noole or royal champions took part. 
During the Middle Ages, Spaniards and Moors strove to outrival each 
other's exploits in the arena as on the field of battle. Isabella the Catho- 
lic was horrified at the bull-fights and wanted to suppress them, but pub- 
lic opinion was too strong for her. Isabella II. found them specially 
suited to her taste and disposition and enthusiastically encouraged them. 
Notwithstanding many of the better class of Spaniards disapprove, con- 
demn, and occasionally protest against it, the cherished institution still 
flourishes ; distinguished bull-fighters live in luxury, and as they show 
themselves in the Prado or the Puerta del Sol, an admiring populace 
delights to point them out as heroes, and to tell with pride the story of 
their marvelous adventures. 

The Barbarous Bull-Fig-lit. 

The Madrid Bull-ring is outside the Puerta de Alcala and is capable of 
accommodating 14,000 spectators. Once a week it is crowded and pen- 
niless thousands wait outside to hear, and if possible to get inside. 
Around the sanded arena on stone benches sit the spectators. With 
trumpet-blast the ring is cleared and a fierce bull enters. He is met by 
the " picadors " on their wretched blindfolded nags. The bull rushes at 
the nearest and receives a spear in his shoulder. Perhaps he recoils and 
the rider escapes by wheeling his horse to the left. More often the bull, 
even though wounded, tumbles horse and rider into a heap, and the cloak- 
bearers rush in to divert the animal's attention. The " picador " is helped 
to re-mount. 

If a bull is energetic and rapid in execution, he will clear the arena in 
a few moments. He rushes at one horse after another, tears them open 
with his terrible " spears " (" horns " is a word never used in the ring), and 
sends them madly galloping over the arena. The assistants watch their 
opportunity, from time to time, to take the wounded horses out of the 
ring, plug up their gaping rents with tow, and sew them roughly up for 
another sally. Of course some of the horses are killed outright at a blow, 
but it is marvelous how long the gored and patched-up steeds will carry 
their riders. Sometimes a "picador" is killed. 

After several horses have been killed the " banderilleros " come in to 
play their part. It is their place to insert little barbed darts with flags at 



TRAVELS IN SPAIN. 



85 



the end in ^he bull's neck. These darts are often filled at the base with 
detonating;' powder which explodes in the neck of the bull. He dances 
or skips like a kid or a colt in his agony, which is very diverting to the 
Spanish mind. This process is prolonged as much as possible, and 
^accompanied by wonderful exhibitions of skill and address in evading the 
bull's assault. 

The final act — the death of the bull — comes at last. The " matador " 




CAKE AND WATER SELLER MADRID. 

comes forward, bowing to the audience and, sword and cape in hand, 
confronts the bull. It is always an impressive picture, the tortured, 
maddened animal, whose flanks are palpitating with his hot breathing, 
his coat one shining mass of blood from the darts and the spear-thrusts, 
his massive neck still decked as in mockery with the fluttering flags, his 
fine head and muzzle seeming sharpened by the hour's terrible experience, 
his formidable horns crimsoned with the onset; in front of this fiery bulk of 



86 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

force and courage, the slight, sinewy form of the killer, whose only re- 
liance is on his coolness and intellect. At a favorable moment the sword 
is thrust to the hilt between, the left shoulder and spine, and the bull reels 
and dies. The heavens are rent with thunderous applause, and in a few 
minutes another bull bounds into the arena, and the barbarous spectacle 
is again gone through until six bulls have been slain. 
Sights in tlie Streets of Madrid. 

The heart of the city is the Puerta del Sol — not a gate, as its name 
would imply, but a public place, named after some sun-adorned portal 
that has long since disappeared. To-day (in spite of the loungers) the 
Puerta del Sol is gay with busy life and industry. A noisy, ceaseless, 
open-air traffic is going on all around; all the journals of Madrid are 
sold here, mostly by women and children, whose shrill voices, especially 
towards evening, when the most popular sheets appear, make a perfect 
babel. Here, too, are the clamorous men and urchins, half-clad and often 
barefoot, who vend wax matches. Your true Spaniard is always smok- 
ing, but he smokes in a lazy fashion ; his cigar is perpetually going out, 
and the consumption of wax matches is something prodigious. Very 
prominent also are the venders of cold water, who, carrying in one hand 
their straw-wrapped stone«bottle, and in front of them a tray of half-pint 
glasses and a stock of rose-flavored biscuits made of sugar-paste, shou^ 
vociferously, and do a roaring trade, for the copious imbibition of cold 
water is another of the favorite pursuits of the Madrid populace; 
The Rock of Gibraltar. 

Turning our attention now away from the ancient capitol, we find one 
object of surprising interest on the Spanish coast. The Rock of Gibral- 
tar, which, among military men, is "regarded as the key to the Mediterra- 
nean, has been in the hands of the British for the period of 150 years. 
It was in 1704 that the English, under Admiral Sir George Rooke, be- 
sieged and conquered it from the Spaniards, with the loss of about sixty 
killed and two hundred wounded. In the following year the Spaniards 
attempted to retake it, but in vain ; they again attacked the fortress in 
1727, when they lost 3,000 men in an attempt equally futile. The great 
sieo"e, however, which drew the attention of the whole world, owing- to 
the magnitude of the operations carried on, and which, by its result, es- 
tablished the high reputation of the British as garrison soldiers, com- 
menced in 1779 and endured until February 1782. 

This fortified rock, which was the object of so protracted and desper- 
ate a conflict, is above 1 300 feet in height, and stands at the extremity of 
an isthmus which projects into the sea several miles from the main land. 



TRAVELS IN SPAIN. 



87 



h is about seven miles in circumference, is so steep as to be totally in- 
iccessible from the north side, which fronts the isthmus, and from the 




eastern side which fionts the Mediterranean. The south and west sides 
present a precipitous slope fortified with all the appliances, offensfve and 
defensive, which the ingenuity of man can devise. 



88 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

The ancients had a fable that Europe and Africa were originally joined 
at this part, and that the two continents were riven asunder by Hercules, 
and a passage thus obtained between the Mediterranean Sea and the 
Atlantic Ocean. Gibraltar under the name of Calpe, and Mount Abyla, 
opposite to it on the African coast, were called the pillars of Hercules, 
and appear to have been in very early ages regarded by the people dwell- 
ing to the east of them— including the Carthaginians, the Greeks and 
the Romans — as the western boundary of the world. 

Impregnable Fortress. 

The promontory of Gibraltar is joined to the Spanish main by a neck 
of land so narrow that from these aspects it has the appearance of ar* 
island. It is about three miles in length from north to south, varying 
from one-half to three-quarters of a mile in width, and from twelve to 
fourteen feet in height. The rock is steepest towards the Mediterranean, 
and graduall)4 declines towards the bay. But here, nature, as if to ren- 
der Gibraltar inaccessible on all sides, has placed between t^ie foot of the 
fortress on the west, and the bay of Algeciras, a deep swamp, which ex- 
tends to the land gate, leaving between them only space sufficient for a 
very narrow causeway commanded by nearly one hundred pieces of 
canon. Between the swamp and the bay a small dyke runs along by the 
seaside to confine the water ; and within the enclosure of the fortress the 
marsh is bordered by a palisade, which begins at the foot of the moun- 
tain and terminates at the sea. From this point is distinctly seen the old 
mole, a kind of jetty, lined on either side with batteries ; it entirely masks 
the new mole which is half a league behind it. 

The northern front of the rock is almost perpendicular; the eastern is 
full of frightful precipices ; the southern, being narrow and abrupt, pre- 
sents hardly any possibility of approach even to an enemy in command 
of the sea. The western front, although nearly as abrupt as the others, 
may be approached by shipping from the bay, and on this side accord- 
ingly the attacks of assailants have always been presented. The town 
stands at the foot of the promontory on the north-western side. It is 
strongly fortified, but its chief protection is derived from the batteries on 
the neighboring heights, which sweep both the isthmus and the approach 
of water. 




EXCITING ADVENTURES IN 
THE ALPS. 

Switzerland— The Gem of Picturebque Europe- 
Land of Mountains, Glaciers and Perpetual 
bnow— Agricultural and Industiial Products — 
Enthusiastic Touri'^ts— Climbing a Lofty Sum- 
mit — Steep Ascent— Adventure^ on the Return- 
Daring Guide— Reynaud and His Knapsack— 
On the Brink of a Chasm— Preparing to Jump- 
Bold Leap Over the Edge— Rejnaud Flying 
Head I irst Ihiough the Air— Bravery of Al- 
pme Guides— Hard Mountain to Climb— Perilous Scramble Across an Ice 
Bridge— Struck by a Hurricane— Terrible Cold— The Famous Matterhom— 
Historic Incident— On the Giddy Peak— Making Merry— A Guide's Suggestive 
Remark— Lashed Together With a Rope— A Fall of 4000 Feet— Horrible Death- 
Search for Bodies— Ominous Vision in the Sky— Mont Cenis— Famous Road and 
Railway— Climbing a Mountain by Steam— Curious Mechanical Contrivance— The 
Third Rail— Simplon Pass— Avalanches and Death— The Hospice— Startling Ad- 
ventures in Snow and Ice— A Timely Rescue— Scene of Mountain Grandeur. 

89 




FROM POLE TO POLE. 



I WITZERLAND is a federal republic, but the central govern- 
ment is so weak that the twenty-two cantons making up 
the country, are each, to all intents and purposes, inde- 
pendent States, such as were most of them before they 
banded together for mutual defence against their foreign 
enemies. It is essentially the land of the Alps ; and hence 
is the most mountainous and picturesque of central 
European countries. Indeed, it is nearly impossible to 
look in any direction from any point of Switzerland with- 
out seeing mountains, glaciers, or snow; and accordingly agriculture 
can be followed only in the valleys, though the mountain sides, as the 
snow disappears, afford excellent pasture for the herds of cows, sheep^ 
and goats. 

No country in the world has a more varied climate. On the mount- 
ain-tops are Arctic frosts ; in the valleys a summer temper '-ure sufficient 
for the rearing of crops of maize, hemp, tobacco, and grapes, in addition 
to all the products of temperate Europe. Forests cover one-sixth of its 
surface, and only a small portion of the rest of the country can be tilled. 
Land of Enthusiastic Tourists. 
Owing also to its inland position, its foreign trade is small, though it 
manufactures silk, cotton, linen, lace, thread, woolens, and, above all, the 
clocks and watches for which some of its towns, like Neufchatel and 
Geneva have long been famous. The country contains 15,900 square 
miles. Railways traverse portions of it, while the lakes of Constance, 
Zurich, Lucerne, Neufchatel, Geneva, and Bienne afford inland commu- 
nication, and parts of the Rhine and the upper stretches of the Rhone 
are also navigable for some distance through Switzerland. Three-fourths 
of the inhabitants are Germans, the rest are French and Italian. 

Switzerland attracts tourists from all parts of the world, who are not 
only charmed with the majestic mountain scenery, but who, in many in- 
stances, undertake to climb such peaks as Mont Blanc and the Matter- 
horn, even at the risk of life. Many enthusiasts visit the Alps every year^ 
and Alpine climbing has become a business. 

One of the most successful Alpine climbers in recent years is Mr. 
Edward Whymper, Avhose graphic description of his adventures is exceed- 
ingly thrilling. We quote from his entertaining narrative of one of his 
excursions. 

Monsieur Reynaud, a scientific explorer, had been invited to accompany 
us, but had arrived at Val Louise after we had left, and had energetically 



EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS. 



91 



pursued us during the night. Our idea was, that a pass might be made 
over the high ridge called (on the French map) Crete de Boeufs Rouges, 
near to the peak named Les Bans, which might be the shortest route in 
time (as it certainly would be in distance) from Val Louise across the 
central Dauphin6 Alps. We had seen the northern (or Pilatte) side, and 
it seemed to be practicable at one place near the above-mentioned moun- 
tain. More than that could not be told at a distance of eleven miles. We 
intended to try to hit a point on the ridge immediately above the part 
where it seemed to be easiest. 

The course was north-north-west, and was prodigiously steep. In less 
than two miles' difference of latitude we rose one mile of absolute height. 
But the route was so far from being an exceptionally dif^cult one that at 
10.45 we stood on 
the summit of the 
pass, having made 
an ascent of more 
than five thousand 
feet in five hours, 
inclusive of halts. 

We commenced 
the ascent of the 
gully leading to a 
point in the ridge, 
^ust to the east of 
Mont Bans, So far 
the route had been 
nothing more than European emblem. 

a steep grind in an angle where little could be seen, but now views 
opened out in several directions, and the way began to be interesting. It 
was more so, perhaps, to us than to our companion, M. Reynaud, who 
had no rest in the last night. He was, moreover, heavily laden. Science 
was to be regarded — his pockets were stuffed with books ; heights and 
angles were to be observed — his knapsack was filled with instruments ; 
hunger was to be guarded against — his shoulders were ornamented with 
a huge nimbus of bread, and a leg of mutton swung behind from his 
knapsack, looking like an overgrown tail. 

Like a good-hearted fellow, he had brought this food, thinking we 
might be in need of it. As it happened, we were well provided for, and, 
having our own packs to carry, could not relieve him of his superfluous 
burdens, which, naturally, he did not like to throw away. As the ans^les 




92 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

steepened the scrain on his strength became more and more apparent. 
At last he began to groan. At first a most gentle and mellow groan, 
but as we rose so did his groans, till at last the cliffs were groanmg in 
echo and we were moved to laughter. 

Our sturdy guide, Croz, cut the way with unflagging energy through- 
out the whole of the ascent, and at length we stood on the summit of our 
pass, intending to refresh ourselves with a good halt; but just at that 
moment a mist, which had been playing about the ridge, swooped down 
and blotted out the whole of the view on the northern side. 
Suddenly Compelled to Descend. 

Croz was the only one who caught a glimpse of the descent, and it 
was deemed advisable to push on immediately while its recollection was 
fresh in his memory. We are consequently unable to tell anything about 
the summit of the pass, except that it lies immediately to the east of 
Mont Bans, and is elevated about eleven thousand three hundred feet 
above the level of the sea. It is the highest pass in Dauphine. 

We commenced to descend by a slope of smooth ice, the face of which, 
according to measurement, had an inclination of 54 degrees ! Croz still 
led, and the others followed at intervals of about fifteen feet, all being tied 
together. Aimer, the other guide, occupying the responsible position of 
last man : the two guides were therefore about seventy feet apart. They 
were quite invisible to each other from the mist, and looked spectral even 
to us. But the strong man could be heard by all hewing out the steps 
below, while every now and then the voice of the steady mail pierced 
the cloud : " Slip not, dear sirs ; place well your feet ; stir not until you 
are certain." 

For three-quarters of an hour we progressed in this fashion. The ax 
of Croz all at once stopped. "What is the matter, Croz?" "Matter 
enough, gentlemen." "Can we get over?" "Upon my word, I don't 
know; I think we must jump." The clouds rolled away right and left 
as he spoke. The effect was dramatic. It Avas preparatory to the " great 
sensation leap " which was about to be executed by the entire company. 
Caught on tlie Edge of a Chasm. 

Some unseen cause, some cliff or obstruction in the rocks underneath, 
had caused our wall of ice to split into two portions, and the huge fissure 
which had thus been formed extended on each hand as far as could be 
seen. We, on the slope above, were separated from the slope below by 
a mighty crevasse. No running up and down to look for an easier place 
to cross could be done on an ice-slope of 54 degrees ; the chasm had to 
be passed then and there. 




reynaud's perilous fall from the snow-cliff. 



93 



94 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

A downward jump of fifteen or sixteen feet, and a forward leap of seven 
or eight feet, had to be made at the same time. That is not much, you 
will say. It was not much ; it was not the quantity, but it was the quality 
of the jump which gave to it its particular flavor. You had to hit a 
narrow ridge of ice. If that was passed, it seemed as if you might roll 
down for ever and ever. If it was not attained, you dropped into the 
crevasse below, which although partly choked by icicles and snow that 
had fallen from above, was still gaping in many places, ready to receive 

an erratic body. 

A Jump Head Foremost. 

Croz untied Walker, one of our party, in order to get rope enoug*h, and, 
warning us to hold fast, sprang over the chasm. He alighted cleverly 
on his feet, untied himself and sent up the rope to Walker, who followed 
his example. It was then my turn, and I advanced to the edge of the 
ice. The second which followed was what is called a supreme moment. 
That is to say, I felt supremely ridiculous. The world seemed to revolve 
at a frightful pace and my stomach to fly away. The next moment I found 
myself sprawling in the snow, and then, of course, vowed that it was noth- 
ing, and prepared to encourage my friend Reynaud. 

He came to the edge and made declarations. I do not believe that he 
was a whit more reluctant to pass the place than we others, but he was 
infinitely more demonstrative : in a word, he was French. He wrung his 
hands : " Oh, what a terrible place ! " " It is nothing, Reynaud," I said, 
"it is nothing." "Jump!" cried the others, "jump ! " But he turned 
round, as far as one can do such a thing m an ice-step, and covered his 
face with his hands, ejaculating, " Upon my word, it is not possible. No, 
no, no ! it is not possible." 

How he came over I do not know. We saw a toe — it seemed to belong 
to Moore, another of our party; we saw Reynaud, a flying body, coming 
down as i-f taking a header into water, with arms and legs all abroad, his 
leg of mutton flying in the air, his stock escaped from his grasp; and 
then we heard a thud as if a bundle of carpets had been pitched out of 
a window. When set upon his feet he was a sorry spectacle : his head 
was a great snow-ball, brandy was trickling out of one side of the knap- 
sack, wine out of the other. We bemoaned its loss, but we roared with 

laughter. 

Exploits of a Guide. 

I must pay a tribute to the ability with which Croz led us through a 

dense mist down the remainder of the route. As an exhibition of strength 

and skill it has probably never been surpassed in the Alps or elsewhere. 



EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS. 



95 



On this almost unknown and very steep glacier he was perfectly at home, 
•2ven in the mists. Never able to see fifty feet ahead, he still went on with 
the utmost certainty and without having to retrace a single step, and dis- 
played from first to last consummate knowledge of the materials with 
which he was dealing. Now he cut steps down one side of a gully, went 
with a dash at the other side, and hauled us up after him ; then cut away 
along a ridge until a point was gained from which we could jump on to 
another ridge ; then, doubling back, found a snow-bridge, across which 
he crawled on hands and knees, towed us 
across by the legs, ridiculing our apprehen- 
sions, mimicking our awkwardness, declin- 
ing all help, bidding us only to follow him. 

We emerged from the mist, and found 
ourselves just arrived upon the level portion 
of the glacier, having as Reynaud properly 
remarked, come down as quickly as if there 
had not been any mist at all. Then we 
attacked the leg of mutton which my friend 
had so thoughtfully brought with him, 
and afterward raced down, with renewed 
energy. 

The Dent Blanche is a mountain little 
known except to the climbing fraternity. 
It was, and is reputed to be one of the most 
difficult mountains in the Alps. Many at- 
tempts were made to scale it before its 
ascent was accomplished. Even Leslie 
Stephen himself, fleetest of foot of the whole 
Alpine brotherhood, once upon a time re- 
turned discomfited from it. 

It was not climbed until 1862, but in 
that year Mr. T. S. Kennedy, with Mr. Wigram and the guides Jean 
B. Croz and Kronig, managed to conquer it. They had a hard fight, 
though, before they gained the victory; a furious wind and driving 
snow, added to the natural difficulties, nearly turned the scale against 
them. 

I thought it might be possible to find an easier route than that taken 
by Mr. Kennedy, and that if we succeeded in discovering one we should 
be able to vaunt our superior wisdom. I halted my little army at the 
foot of the glacier, and inquired, "Which is best for us to do? — to 




ALPINE GUIDE. 



96 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

ascend the Dent Blanche, or to cross to Zermatt ?" They answered, with 
befitting solemnity, " We think Dent Blanche is best." 

We zig-zagged up the glacier along the foot of the face, and looked for 
a way on to it. We looked for some time in vain, for a mighty crevasse 
effectually prevented approach, and, like a fortress' moat, protected the 
wall from assault. We went up and up, until, finally, a bridge was dis- 
covered, and we dropped down on hands and knees to cross it. In the 
month of June or before, crevasses are usually snowed up or well bridged 
over, and do not give much trouble. Later in the year, say in August, 
they are frequently very great hindrances, and occasionally are com- 
pletely impassable. 

Difficult ClimTbing-. 

We crossed the chasm of the Dent Blanche, I suppose, at a height of 
about twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea. Our work may 
be said to have commenced at that point. The face, although not steep 
in its general inclination, was so cut up by little ridges and cliffs, and so 
seamed with incipient gullies, that it had all the difficulty of a much more 
precipitous slope. The difficulties were never great, but they were 
numerous, and made a very respectable total when put together. We 
passed the chasm soon after nine in the morning, and during the next 
eleven hours halted only five and forty minutes. The whole of the 
remainder of the time was occupied in ascending and descending the 
twenty-four hundred feet which compose this south-western face; and 
inasmuch as one thousand feet per hour (taking the mean of ascent and 
descent) is an ordinary rate of progression, it is tolerably certain that the 
Dent Blanche is a mountain of exceptional difficulty. 

The hindrances opposed to us by the mountain itself were, however, 
as nothing compared with the atmospheric obstructions. It is true there 
was plenty of — "Are you fast. Aimer?" "Yes." " Go ahead, Biener." 
Biener, made secure, cried, " Come on, sir," and monsieur endeavored. 
" No, no," said Aimer, "not there — here ! " pointing with his alpenstock, 
or stick, to the right place to clutch. Then 'twas Croz's turn, and we all 
drew in the rope as the great man followed. " Forward " once more — 
and so on. 

Five hundred feet of this kind of work had been accomplished when 
we were saluted (not entirely unexpectedly) by the first gust of a hurri- 
cane which was raging above. The day was a lovely one for dwellers in 
the valleys, but we had long ago noted some light, gossamer clouds that 
were hovering round our summit, being drawn out in a suspicious man- 
ner into long, silky threads. Croz, indeed, prophesied before we had 




CROSSING AN ICE-BRIDGE OVER AN IMMENSE CHASM. 



97 



98 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

crossed the crevasse that we should be beaten by the wind, and had 

advised that we should return. But I had retorted, " No, my good Croz, 

you said just now, * Dent Blanche is best ; ' we must go up the Dent 

Blanche." 

Freaks of the Wind. 

I have a very lively and disagreeable recollection of this wind. Upon 
the outskirts of the disturbed region it was only felt occasionally. It 
then seemed to make rushes at one particular man, and when it had dis- 
comfited him, it whisked itself away to some far-off spot, only to return 
presently in greater force than before. 

The Matterhorn, seen in the distance, looked totally unassailable. 
" Do you think," the men asked, " that you or anyone else will ever get 
up that mountain ? " And when, undismayed by their ridicule, I stoutly 
answered, " Yes, but not upon that side," they burst into derisive chuckles. 
I must confess that my hopes sank, for nothing can look, or be more 
completely inaccessible than the Matterhorn on its northern and north- 
west sides. 

At length we struck the great ridge, followed by Mr. Kennedy, close 
to the top of the mountain. The wind and cold were terrible there. The 
men rose with the occasion, although even their fingers had nearly lost 
sensation. There were no murmurings or suggestions of return, and 
they pressed on for the little white cone which they knew must be near 
at hand. Stopped again — a big mass perched loosely on the ridge barred 
the way ; we could not crawl over and scarcely dared creep round it. 
^NTearly Frozen to Death. 

We commenced the descent of the face. It was hideous work. The 
men looked like impersonations of winter, with their hair all frosted and 
their beards matted with ice. My hands were numbed — dead. I begged 
the others to stop. " We cannot afford to stop ; we must continue to 
move," was their reply. They were right; to stop was to be entirely 
frozen. So we went down, gripping rocks varnished with ice, which 
pulled the skin from the fingers. Gloves were useless ; they became iced 
too, and the batons slid through them as slippery as eels. The iron of 
the axes stuck to the fingers — it felt red hot ; but it was useless to shrink ; 
the rocks and the axes had to be firmly grasped — no faltering would do 
here. 

We turned back at 4.12 p. m., and at 8.15 crossed the big crevasse 
again, not having halted for a minute upon the entire descent. During 
the last two hours it was windless, but time was of such vital importance 
that we pressed on incessantly, and did not stop until we were fairly upo» 



EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS. 99 

the glacier. Then we took stock of what remained of the tips of our 
fingers. There was not much skin left ; they were perfectly raw, and for 
weeks afterward I was reminded of the ascent of the Dent Blanche by 
the twinges which I felt when I pulled on my boots. The others escaped 
with some slight frost bites, and altogether we had reason to congratulate 
ourselves that we got off so lightly. The men complimented me upon 
the descent, and I could do the same honestly by them. If they had 
worked less vigorously or harmoniously, we should have been benighted 
upon the face, where there was not a single spot upon which it was pos- 
sible to sit; and if that had happened, I do not think that one would have 
survived to tell the tale. 

Terrible Accident and Lioss of liife ou the Matterhorn. 
The Matterhorn, as seen from Zermatt, stands alone and incomparable. 
Its northern face appears a single obelisk of rock rising, naked and pre- 
cipitous, from the glacier about its base. " Other peaks," says Mr. Ball, 
" such as some of the Chamouni Aiguilles may appear as bold in outline 
but they want the air of solidity peculiar to this unmatched peak. With 
an audacity that seems to defy the universe, it rears its front 5000 feet 
above the snow fields at its base, as though its massive framework could 
support the shock of a world in ruins." 

The year 1865 will be forever memorable in the annals of Swiss 
mountaineering, from the terrible tragedy which followed upon the first 
and probably the only successful, attempt to ascend the Matterhorn. The 
following is Mr, Whymper's narrative : 

On Wednesday morning, the 12th of July, Lord Francis Douglas and 
myself engaged Peter Taugwalder, and gave him permission to choose 
another guide. In the course of the evening, the Rev. Charles Hudson 
came into our hotel with a friend, Mr. Hadow, and they, in answer to 
some inquiries, announced their intention of starting to attack the Mat- 
terhorn on the following morning. Lord Francis Douglas agreed with 
me it was undesirable that two independent parties should be on the 
mountain at the same time with the same object. Mr. Hudson was there- 
fore invited to join us, and he accepted our proposal. 

Before admitting Mr. Hadow, I took the precaution to inquire what he 
had done in the Alps, and, as well as I remember, Mr. Hudson's reply 
was : " Mr. Hadow has done Mont Blanc in less time than most men." 
He then mentioned several other excursions that were unknown to me, 
and added, in answer to a further question, " I consider he is a sufficiently 
good man to go with us." This was an excellent certificate, given us, as 
was, by a first-rate mountaineer, and Mr. Hadow was admitted without 



100 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

any further question. We then went into the matter of guides. Michel 
Croz was with Messrs. Hadow and Hudson, and the latter thought if 
Peter Taugwalder went as well, that there would not be occasion for any- 
one else. The question was referred to the men themselves and they 

made no objection. 

Making- a Start. 

We left Zermatt at 5.35 on Thursday morning, taking the two young 
Taugwaiders as porters, by the desire of their father. They carried pro- 
visions amply sufficient for the whole party for three days," in case the 
ascent should prove more difficult than we anticipated. 

It was our intention on leaving Zermatt to attack the mountain seri- 
ously — not, as it had been frequently stated, to explore or examine it — 
and we were provided with everything that long experience has shown to 
be necessary for the most difficult mountains. On the first day, however 
we did not intend to ascend to any great height, but to stop when we 
found a good position for placing the tent. We mounted accordingly 
very leisurely, left the Tac Noir at 8.20, and passed along the ridge con- 
necting the Hornli with the actual peak, at the foot of which wc arrived 
at 11.20, having frequently halted on the way. We then quitted the 
ridge, went to the left, and ascended by the north-eastern face of the 
mountain. 

Before 12 o'clock we had found a good position for the tent, at a height 
of 11,000 feet ; but Croz and the elder of Taugwalder's sons went on to 
see what was above, in order to save tirne the following morning. The 
remainder constructed the platform on which the tent was to be placed, 
and by the time this was finished the two men returned, reported joyfully 
that as far as they had gone they had seen nothing but that which was 
good, and asserted positively that had we gone on that day we could have 
ascended the mountain, and have returned to the tent with facility. Wc 
passed the remaining hours of daylight — some basking in the sunshine, 
some sketching or collecting, and, when the sun went down, giving, as it 
departed, a glorious promise for the morrow, we returned to the tent to 
arrange for the night. 

Merry Party on the Eve of Death. 

Hudson made tea, myself coffee, and we then retired each one to his 
blanket bag ; the Taugwaiders, Lord Francis Douglas and myself, occu- 
pying the tent, the others remaining, by preference, outside. But long 
after dusk the cliffs above echoed with our laughter and the songs of the 
guides, for we were happy that night in camp, and did not dream of 
calamity. 



EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS. 101 

We were astir long before daybreak on the morning of the 14th, and 
started directly it was possible to move, leaving the youngest of Taug- 
walder's sons behind. At 6.20 we had attained a height of 12,800 feet, 
and halted for half an hour, then continued the ascent without a break 
until 9.55, when we stopped for fifty minutes, at a height probably of 
about 14,000 feet. 

Thus far we had ascended by the north-eastern face of the mountain, 
and had not met with a single difficulty. For the greater part of the wa^-- 
there was, indeed, no occasion for the rope, and sometimes Hudson lee 
sometimes myself. We had now arrived at the foot of that part which 
from Zermatt seems perpendicular or overhanging, and we could no longer 
continue on the 3ame side. By common consent, therefore, we turnec 
over to the right, or to the north-western face. 

Before doing so, we made a change in the order of ascent ; Croz now 
went first, I followed, Hudson came third ; Hadow and old Taugwalder 
were last. The change was made because the work became diflficult for 
a time and required caution. In some places there was but little to hold, 
and it was therefore desirable those should be in front who were least 
likely to slip The general slope of the mountain at this part was less 
than forty degrees, and snow had consequently accumulated and filled up 
the irregularities of the rock face, leaving only occasional fragments pro- 
jecting here and there. These were at times coated with a thin glaze of 
ice, from the snow above having melted and frozen again during the 
night. Still it was a place over which any fair mountaineer might pass 
in safety. 

Arriving- at the Suniniit. 

We found, however, that Mr. Hadow was not accustomed to this kind 
of work, and required continual assistance ; but no one suggested that he 
should stop, and he was taken to the top. It is only fair to say that the 
difficulty experienced by Mr. Hadow at this part arose, not from fatigue 
or lack of courage, but simply and entirely from want of experience. 
Mr. Hudson, who followed me, passed over this part, and, as far as I 
know, ascended the entire mountain without having the slightest assist- 
ance rendered to him on any occasion. 

Sometimes, after I had taken a hand from Croz or received a pull, I turned 
to give the same to Hudson, but he invariably declined, saying it was not 
necessary. This solitary difficult part was of no great extent, certainly 
not more than three hundred feet high, and after it was passed the angles 
became less and less as we approached the summit ; at last the slope was 
so moderate that Croz and myself detached ourselves from the others. 



102 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

and ran on to the top. We arrived there at 1.40 p. m., the others about 
ten minutes after us. 

I have been requested to describe particularly the state of the party on 
the summit. No one showed any sign of fatigue, neither did I hear any- 
thing to lead me to suppose that anyone was at all tired. I remember 
Croz laughing at me when I asked him the question. We had, indeed, 
been moving less than ten hours, and during that time had halted for 
nearly two. The only remark which I heard suggestive of danger was 
made by Croz, but it was quite casual, and probably meant nothing. He 
said, after I had remarked that we had come up very slowly, " Yes ; I 
would rather go down with you and another guide alone than with those 
who are going." As to ourselves, we were arranging what we should do 
that night on our return to Zermatt. 

Preparing- for tlie Perilous Descent. 

We remamed on the summit for one hour, and during the time Hudson 
and I consulted, as we had done all the day, as to the best and safest ar- 
rangement of the party. We agreed that it would be best for Croz to go 
first, as he was the most powerful, and Hadow second ; Hudson, who 
was equal to a guide in sureness of foot, wished to be third; Lord Doug- 
las was placed next, and old Taugwalder, the strongest of the remainder, 
behind him. 

I suggested to Hudson that we should attach a rope to the rocks on 
our arrival at the difficult bit, and hold it as we descended, as an addi- 
tional protection. He approved the idea, but it was not definitely settled 
that it should be done. The party was being arranged in the above orde*^ 
while I was making a sketch of the summit, and they were waiting foi 
me to be tied in my place, when some one remembered that we had not 
left our names in a bottle ; they requested me to write them, and moved 
off while it was being done. 

A few minutes afterwards I tied myself to young Taugwalder and fol- 
lowed, catching them just as they were commencing the descent of the 
difficult part described above. The greatest care was being taken. Only 
one man was moving at a time; when he was firmly planted the next ad- 
vanced, and so on. The average distance between each was probably 
twenty feet. They had not, however, attached the additional rope to the 
rocks and nothing was said about it. The suggestion was made entirely 
on account of Mr. Hadow, and I am not sure it even occurred to me 
again. 

I was, as I have explained, detached from the others, and following 
them; but after about a quarter of an hour Lord Douglas asked me to 




REMARKABLE FOG-BOW SEEN FROM MATTERHORN. 



103 



104 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

tie on to old Taugwalder, as he feared, he said, that if there was a sHp, 
Taugwalder would not be able to hold him. This was hardly done ten 
minutes before the accident, and undoubtedly saved Taugwalder's life. 

The Fatal Fall. 

As far as I know, at the moment of the accident, no one was actually 
jnoving. I cannot speak with certainty, neither can the Taugwalders, 
'because the two leading men were part"ally hidden from our sight by an 
intervening mass of rock. Poor Croz had laid aside his axe, and in order 
to give Mr. Hadow greater security, was absolutely taking hold of his 
legs, and putting his feet one by one into their proper positions. From the 
movements of their shoulders, it is my belief that Croz, having done as I 
have said, was in the act of turning round to go down a step or two him- 
self; at this moment Mr. Hadow slipped, fell on him, and knocked him 
over. 

I heard one startled exclamation from Croz, then saw him and Mr. 
Hadow flying downwards ; in another moment Hudson was dragged 
from his steps and Lord Douglas immediately after him. All this was 
the work of a moment ; but immediately we heard Croz's exclamation, 
Taugwalder and myself planted ourselves as firmly as the rocks would 
permit; the rope was tight between us, and the shock came on us both 
as on one man. We held ; but the rope broke midway between Taug- 
walder and Lord Douglas. 

For two or three seconds we saw our unfortunate companions sliding 
downwards on their backs, and spreading out their hands endeavoring to 
save themselves ; they then disappeared one by one, and fell from preci- 
pice to precipice on to the Matterhorn glacier below, a distance of nearly 
four thousand feet in height. From the moment <"he rope broke it was 
impossible to help them. 

Petrified With Horror. 

For the space of half an hour we remained on the spot without moving 
a single step. The two men, paralyzed by terror, cried like infants, and 
trembled in such a manner as to threaten us with the fate of the others. 
Immediately we had ascended to a safe place, I asked for the rope that had 
broken, and to my surprise — indeed, to my horror — found that it was the 
weakest of the three ropes. As the first five men had been tied while I 
was sketching, I had not noticed the rope they employed ; and now I 
could only conclude that they had seen fit to use this in preference to 
the others. It has been stated that the rope broke in consequence of its 
-raying over a rock ; this is not the case; it broke in mid-air, and the end 
doe not show any trace of previous injury. 



EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS. 105 

For more than two hours afterwards I thought every moment that the 
next would be my last; for the Taugwalders, utterly unnerved, were not 
only incapable of giving assistance, but were in such a state that a slip 
might have been expected from one or the other at any moment. I do 
the younger man, moreover, no injustice when I say that immediately we 
got to the easy part of the decent, he was able to laugh, smoke, and eat 
as if nothing had happened. 

Startling- Vision in the Sky. 
About 6 p. M. we arrived at the snow upon the ridge descending toward 
Zermatt, and all peril was over. We frequently locked but in vain, for 
traces of our unfortunate companions ; we bent over the ridge and cried 
to them, but no sound returned. Convinced at last that they were within 
neither sight nor hearing, we ceased from our useless efforts, and, too cast 
down for speech, silently gathered up our things and the little effects of 
those who were lost, preparatory to continuing the descent, when lo ! a 
mighty arch appeared, rising above the Lyskamm high into the sky. 

Pale, colorless and noiseless, but perfectly sharp and defined, except 
where it was lost in the clouds, this unearthly apparition seemed like a 
vision from another world, and, almost appalled, we watched with amaze- 
ment the gradual development of two vast crosses, one on either side. If 
the Taugwalders had not been the first to perceive it, I should have 
doubted my senses. They thought it had some connection with the acci- 
dent, and I, after awhile, that it might bear some relation to ourselves. 
But our movements had no effect upon it. The spectral forms remained 
motionless. It was a fearful and wonderful sight, unique in my experi- 
ence, and impressive beyond description, coming at such a moment. We 
arrived at Zermatt at 10.30 on Saturday morning. 

Shocking^ Discovery. 
Immediately on my arrival I sent to the President of the Commune, 
and requested him to send as many men as possible to ascend heights 
whence the spot could be commanded where I knew the four must have 
fallen. A number went and returned after six hours reporting that had 
seen them but that they could not reach them that day. They proposed 
starting on Sunday evening so as to reach the bodies at daybreak on 
Monday ; but, unwilling to lose the slightest chance, the Rev. J. McCor- 
mick and myself resolved to start on Sunday morning. By 8.30 we had 
got on to the plateau, and within sight of the corner in which we knew 
my companions must be. 

As we saw one weather-beaten man after another raise the telescope, 
turn deadly pale, and pass it on without a word to the next, we knew that 



106 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

all hope was gone. We approached ; they had fallen below as they had 

fallen above — Croz a little in advance, Hadow near him, and Hudson 

some distance behind ; but of Lord Douglas we could see nothing. 

By order of the Swiss Government the bodies were removed from their 

icy sepulchre at the foot of the Matterhorn for interment in the villap"e of 

Zermatt. 

Marvels of Mont Cenis. 

Traveling in the Alps is, of course, very difficult, and only at great 
expense have highways and railroads been constructed between impor- 
tant points. No locality is more interesting to the tourist at the present 
time than Mont Cenis, which boasts the longest tunnel in the world. 

Guide-books say that the pass of the Mont Cenis is dull. It is long, 
certainly, but it has a fair proportion of picturesque points, and it is not 
easy to see how it can be dull to those who have eyes. In the days 
when it was a rude mountam track, crossed by trains of mules, and when 
it was better known to smugglers- than to tourists, it may have been dull ; 
but when Napoleon's road. changed the rough path into one of the finest 
highways in Europe, mounting in grand curves and by uniform grades, 
and rendered the trot possible throughout its entire distance, the Mont 
Cenis i)ecame one of the most interesting passes in the Alps. The dili- 
gence service which was established was excellent, and there was little 
or nothing to be gained by traveling in a more expensive manner. The 
horses were changed as rapidly as on the best lines in the best period of 
coaching in England, and the diligences themselves were as comfortable 
as a " milord " could desire. 

The most exciting portion of the route was undoubtedly that between 
Lanslebourg and Susa. When the zigzags began, teams of mules were 
hooked on, and the driver and his helpers marched by their side with long 
whips, which they handled skillfully. Passengers dismounted and stretched 
their legs by cutting the curves. The pace was slow but steady, and 
scarcely a halt was made during the rise of two thousand feet. Crack ! 
crack ! went the whips as the corners of the zigzags were turned. Great 
commotion among the mules ! They scrambled and went round with a 
rush, tossing their heads and making music with their bells. 

On the Oallop. 

The summit was gained, the mules were detached and trotted back mer- 
rily, while we, with fresh horses, were dragged at the gallop over the plain to 
the other side. The little postilion seated on the leader smacked his whip 
lustily as he swept round the corners, cut through the rock, and threw his 
head back as the echoes returned^ expectant of smiles and of future pennies. 



EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS. 



107 



The air was keen and often chilly, but the summit was soon passed, and 
one quickly descended to warmth again. Once more there was a change. 




The horses, reduced in number to three, or perhaps two, were the sturdiest 
and most sure of foot, and they raced down with the precision of old 
stagers. Woe to the diligence if they stumbled ! So thought the con- 



108 FROM POLE TO POLfi. 

ductor, who screved down the brakes as the corners were approached. 
The horses, held well in hand, leaned inward as the top-heavy vehicle, so 
suddenly checked, heeled almost over ; but in another moment the brake 
was released, and again they swept down, urged onward by the whip, 
" hoi " and " ha " of the driver. 

All this is changed. The Victor Emmanuel railway superseded a con- 
siderable portion of Napoleon's road, and the " Fell " railway the rest, 
while the great tunnel of the Alps has brought about another change. 
Extraordinary Railway. 

The Fell railway is a line that well deserves attention. Mr. Charles 
VignoUes, the eminent engineer, and Mr. Ericsson patented the idea which 
is now an accomplished fact on the Mont Cenis. Nothing was done with 
it until Mr. Fell, the projector of the railway which bears his name, took 
it up, and to him much credit is due for bringing an admirable principle 
into operation. 

The Fell railway follows the great Cenis road very closely, and diverges 
from it only to avoid villages or houses, or, as at the summit of the pass 
on the Italian side, to ease the gradients. The line runs from St. Michel 
to Susa. The distance between these two places is, as the crow flies, 
thirty miles, but by reason of the numerous curves and detours the 
length of the line is brought up to forty-seven miles. From St. Michel 
to the summit of the pass it rises 4460 feet, and from the summit of 
the pass to Susa, a distance less than ten miles, it descends no less than 
521 1 feet! 

The railway itself is a marvel. For fifteen miles and three-quarters it 
has steeper gradients than one foot in fifteen. In some places it is one in 
twelve and a half! A straight piece of railway constructed on such a 
gradient seems to go up a steep hill. One foot in eighty, or even one in 
a hundred, produces a very sensible diminution in the pace of a light 
train drawn by an ordinary locomotive : how, then, is a train to be taken 
up an incline that is six times as steep ? 

Ingenious Contrivance. 

It is accomplished by means of a third rail placed midway between two 
ordinary ones, and elevated above them. This third rail, or, as it is 
termed "the centre rail," is laid on all the steep portions of the line and 
round all except the mildest curves. Thirty miles, in all, of the road have 
the centre rail. The engines are provided with two pairs of horizontal 
driving-wheels, as well as with the ordinary coupled vertical ones, and the 
power of the machine is thus enormously increased, the horizontal wheels 
gripping the centre rail with great tenacity by being brought together, 



EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS 109 

and being almost incapable of slipping like the ordinary wheels when on 
even a moderate gradient. 

The next remarkable point on the line is at Termignon. The valley 
turns somewhat abruptly to the east, and the course of the railway is not 
at first perceived. It makes a great bend to the left, then doubles back, 
and rises in a little more than a mile no less than three hundred and 
thirty-four feet. This is, perhaps, the most striking piece of the whole line. 

It is curious and interesting to watch the ascent of the trains from 
Lanslebourg. The puffs of steam are seen rising above the trees, some- 
times going in one direction, and sometimes directly the contrary, occa- 
sionally concealed by the covered ways — for over two miles out of the six 
the line is enclosed by planked sides and a corrugated iron roof, to keep 
Dut the snow — and then coming out again into daylight. A halt for 
\tater has to be made about halfway up ; but the engines are able to start 
again, and to resume their rate of seven miles an hour, although the 
gradient is no less than one in fourteen and a half 

The zigzags of the old Cenis road are well known as one of the most 
remarkable pieces of road-engineering in the Alps. The railway follows 
them, and runs parallel to the road on the outside throughout its entire 
distance, with the exception of the turns at the corners, where it is carried 
a little farther out, to render the curves less sharp. Nevertheless, they 
are sufficiently sharp, and would be impracticable without the centre rail. 
Frightful Dang-ers of the Siniplon Pas.s. 

Approaching the lakes of Northern Italy from Switzerland, the route 
commonly taken is by one or other of the roads leading over the passes 
of the St. Gothard, the Simplon, or the Splugen. 

These roads have been constructed at an immense cost both of time 
and money, and are throughout grandly engineered. Sometimes the 
path has been actually chiseled out of the face of perpendicular rock, 
with an awful gulf on one side, and overhanging beetling cliffs on the 
other. Sometimes it has been tunneled through the heart of the mountain, 
or flung at a dizzy height across a ravine, or carried in a series of zigzags 
up the side of a mountain, so steep that the chamois could scarcely climb 
it. At Gondo on the Simplon, a cataract hurls itself sheer over the road 
from the cliffs above, and plunges into the abyss below. On the St. 
Gothard, and the Splugen, the gorge was absolutely impassable, and it 
was necessary to blast a passage through the huge masses of rock which 
blocked up the way. 

The poverty-stricken canton of Uri had succeeded, with extreme diffi- 
culty, in scraping together the means to complete her part of the St. 



110 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

Gothard route, when a storm burst on the summit of the pass, which, in 

a few hours, swept away one-third of the road constructed at so much 

labor and cost. Five years later, a similar tempest effected nearly equal 

injury. And few years pass without some portion of the road being 

destroyed. In many places avalanches sweep over the roads with 

destructive force, and it becomes necessary to construct galleries which 

shall defend travelers* and shoot the mass of snow and debris into the 

gorge» below. 

The Fatal Avalanche. 

A traveler writing from Rome in May, 1 879, gives a graphic account 
of one of these terrible avalanches : Nowhere has this exceptionally 
severe spring been felt so acutely as on the mountain passes between 
Switzerland and Italy. Recently there occurred a scene of disaster and 
death rarely paralleled in those regions of snowdrift and avalanche. The 
Simplon pass is the route by which more than ten thousand Italian work- 
men annually make their way into Switzerland and France in quest of 
employment, and it was on some thirty-two of these wayfarers that the 
visitation descended from which nothing but the noble heroism of the 
poor monks of the Hospice could have saved them. Thanks to that 
institution and its attendants, only one out of the thirty-two Italians lost 
his life, although three of the men attached to it have been engulfed 
in the avalanche, and will not be found till the melting snows have 
unshrouded their bodies on the mountain side. 

After waiting several days, three companies of these Italians, consisting 
respectively of fifteen, ten, and nine persons, set out at once, and by one 
in the afternoon arrived at Refuge 6, where they rested for a little, as the 
snow was coming down with increasing force and density. 

Two sturdy .Swiss youths attached to the Refuge offered to conduct 
the travelers, and off the three companies set once more, with their two 
guides at their head. Scarcely, however, had they emerged from the 
middle gallery called La Vieille Gal^rie — the most dangerous part of the 
Simplon route — when an enormous avalanche descended from the 
mountain, carrying with it the two guides and an Italian workman who 
walked beside them. The rest of the travelers who remained in the galle- 
ries were so far safe, but they soon saw the terrible predicament they 
were in, no longer able to advance or retrace their steps, as both ends of 
the gallery were blocked up with snow. 

Face to Face vpith Death. 

They were in despair, and already the cold was beginning to tell on 
the children of the party, and cries of misery resounded through the 



EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS. 



Ill 



living tomb. Suddenly a man's voice rose above the wailing : " We might 
as well die under an avalanche as under a gallery. Let us try and get 
out." And so without further parley he set to work and succeeded in 
excavating a passage through the snow, and arrived half dead at Refuge 
6, whence the alarm was passed on to the Hospice. 

One of the two guides, a youth named Blatter, quite an athlete in 
strength and nimbleness, managed, as he rolled down with the avalanche, 




CELEBRATED DOGS OF ST. BERNARD SAVING A TRAVELER. 

to keep his alpenstock in his hand, and when he came to a dead stop he 
felt that the point of his stick just protruded from the surface of the snow 
above him. Working away with what strength remained to him, he 
succeeded, after some three hours, in extricating himself from the ava- 
lanche, but there his powers failed him, and he was only able to call for 
help across the silent snow. Fortunately his cries reached the Refuge, 
and its inmate, with a servant of the Hospice, who had stopped at 
the Refuge on his way to the Hospice with provisions, set out in the 



112 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

direction of the guide. But they had not walked five minutes wheii 
an immense avalanche hurled them to the foot of the mountain. The 
inmate of the Refuge perished, leaving a young widow and a two-years- 
old boy. 

Wonderful Escape. 

The servant of the Hospice, however, escaped ; though, when rolling 
with the avalanche, he thought he would have died every minute from 
the snow and earth that found its way into his mouth, and was like to 
choke him. He succeeded in turning on his face, and in so relieving 
himself, till, the avalanche having stopped, he disengaged himself from 
the snow, and after severe efforts regained the Refuge in a fainting state 
about two in the morning. During that terrible night he said the roar 
of the descending avalanches was deafening. 

The passage of these roads in winter is attended with great danger from 
the accumulation of snow, and the violence of the tempests which burst 
upon the unwary traveler with appalling suddenness. The following ' 
narrative of a lady's winter adventure on the Simplon, will serve to illus- 
trate this, and to show the value of the Refuges constructed at the most 
\)erilous points of the route. After describing the earlier portion of her 
purney, she says : By the time we left the fifth Refuge no doubt could 
exist as to the alarming state of the weather. It was blowing hard, the 
cold being bitter and intense ; the snow was driving in our faces, and 
thickening the air so much that hardly anything beyond the immediate 
road could be discerned. These storms, in Alpine language are called 
" torments," and truly they deserve the name. 

One peculiar feature of them is, that the snow, so called, resembles more 
a shower of ice, and the flakes or morsels thereof, driving hard and fast 
into the face and eyes of the unhappy traveler, so blind and stupefy him 
that, exhausted in the attempt to battle with the icy tempest, he too fre- 
quently sinks down in the snow, and, overtaken by an irresistible stupor, 
miserably perishes. 

In Imminent Peril. 

The darkness was increasing upon us every instant, and the snow on 
the road had now become so deep as to hide nearly half the wheels of the 
carriage, and cause the greatest difficulty in their turning at all. There 
really seemed nothing to guide or save our struggling horses from over- 
stepping the almost imperceptible boundary that lay between us and total 
destruction. It was a fearful scene, and one calculated to try the strongest 
nerves. The danger of our position really seemed frightful. Men 
and horses were blinded and driven back by the wind and incessant 



EXCITING ADVENTURES IN THE ALPS. 113 

fall of sPcJw which came direct against them ; and though striving hard 
to get on, they constantly stumbled and fell in the untracked and deep 
snow. 

The horses could only by the greatest exertions be induced to face the 
gale, or move a step onwards, their labor being of course doubled by the 
difficulty of forcing the clogged wheels to advance at all. Night, and that, 
too, a fearful one of storm, was evidently fast approaching. What was to 
be done ? I felt almost in despair, for it seemed to me absolutely impos- 
sible that we should this night pass beyond the place where we now 
were. But at this moment we stopped, and, hearing strange voices, I 
perceived that two men from the Refuge had joined us : wild figures they 
were, enveloped in goat-skins ; yet I hailed their arrival with joy and 
gratitude, for I felt sure that help was near. 

Timely Arrival at tlie Refuge. 

One soon advanced to me, and, announcing himself as the inspector of 
Simplon road, and, therefore, of course, the chief of the band of men 
/hereon employed, assured me that, though our situation was certainly 
alarming, he hoped to be able to get us on to the Hospice, where the 
monks would instantly admit us, and there he said we must sleep. The 
inspector and his man being provided with spades of a peculiar kind, 
preceded us, and by digging and shovelling away the snow in the worst 
parts, they considerably diminished the difficulties of our progress, which, 
though the distance is only half a mile between the last Refuge and the 
Hospice, occupied a very long time. 

At last we arrived in front of a large and sohd edifice, and stopping 
opposite to it, the inspector advised us to get out and proceed as well as 
we could on foot, for that it would be both a tedious and difficult opera- 
tion in so deep a snow to turn the carriage, and get it into the coach- 
house of the Hospice. We of course obeyed, as we should have done 
any directions he gave, and scrambled with great difficulty through the 
great masses of snow which covered the ground between us and the gate, 
chilled through and through; we at last arrived at the entrance, just as the 
great bell rang, and a monk, with several large dogs, came out to wel- 
come and receive us. 

After an excellent breakfast, on the following morning, the inspector 
arrived to consult with us on the possibility of continuing our journey. 
The monks tried hard to dissuade us from going ; but encouraged by the 
inspector, we decided on making the attempt; and he further promised 
his own assistance, with that often of his men, to get us safe to Simplon. 
Our cortege was certainly most curious and picturesque; first, our car- 



114 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



riage on a sledge, drawn by four horses ; next, the wheels and baggage on 
another sledge, which was consigned to three white horses. 

Our guards consisted of the inspector and ten men, most wild-looking 
objects, dressed in goat-skins, and armed with spades and all useful im- 
plements. The journey was certainly not performed without considera- 
ble misgiving and alarms ; the distance from the convent to Simplon, 
although only three miles, we were above three hours in accomplishing. 
The snow, where it had drifted on either side of the road, was frequently 
above the height of the carriage, and every step we advanced seemed to 
be only accomplished after much scraping and digging on the part of the 
troop, for of course there was no track whatever. 

In some parts the snow was less deep, and the great rocks around us 
were so thickly covered with a fleecy mantle that no part of their original 
form was visible, while the tall, heavy fir-trees seemed bowed almost to 
the ground by the weight on their branches. Enormous icicles of every 
shape and form, hung pendent from the rocks, and in the already fading 
light assumed innumerable shades of color. Nothing could be more 
beautiful, nothing more wildly grand and sublime, than the scene; and, 
in spite of my fears, I found myself almost absorbed in intense admiration. 




CHAPTER VII. 
A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 

States Bordering the Adriatic — Inhabitants of the " Black Mountain " — Poor Countvy 
— War Considered a Pastime — Rude Hospitality of the Montenegrins — Hunting — 
Dearth of Soap — ^Justice Administered Firmly — State Criminals — Marriages and 
Divorces — The Morlacks— The Wallachians — "Rudolph the Black" — Wallachia 
a Huge Battle-field — Physical Appearance and Domestic Habits of the Walla 
chians — Fine Natural Advantages — Quarries of Salt — The Great Family of Slavo- 
nians — Where Pure Types are Found — Power of Music — Beautiful Women — Cos- 
tumes — Military Confines — Shepherds and Guards — Idle Drunkards -Singular 
Proverbs — Petty Warfare — Constantinople — Famous Mosque- 
Wonderful Bazaars. 

EST of the Adriatic Sea lies "Sunny Italy;" on the east 
are several States, more or less free and independent, 
which present to the traveler many points of interest. 
The Montenegrins who inhabit the " Black Mountain," 
and have acquired a seaport at Dulcigno, are promi- 
nent in the history of Southeastern Europe. Aftei 
fierce struggles with the Turks, they have now attained 
independence, though naturally, owing to their few- 
ness, the people of the Black Mountain are not far ad- 
vanced in culture, while the poverty of the country precludes anything in 
the shape of demoralizing wealth. All together, they number 250,000, of 
whom only a small number live at Cettinje, the primitive capital, the rest 
being scattered over the little territory, engaged, for the most part, in pas- 
toral and agricultural pursuits. Having had to fight a continuous battle for 
their liberty, the Montenegrin is a brave, picturesque, but somewhat 
truculent individual ; and though the Turks' skulls, which once on a time 
were the principal decorations of the capital, have been removed, he is 
quite capable, when occasion offers, of replacing these national monu- 
ments. 

There is no standing army. Every Montenegrin is a soldier, ready at 
an hour's notice to take the field. War is to them a pastime, which is 
welcomed with zest and pursued to the bitter end. During their latest 
bout with the Turks an old man of eighty drew a pistol and shot himself 
dead on the Prince refusing to allow him to march with the troops. 
Everything is primitive m Cettinje — houses, habits and morals. The 

115 





MONTENEGRIN PRIEST IN WAR DRESS BEARING THE CHURCH BANNER. 
116 



A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 117 

women are, perhaps, not actually maltreated, but they are regarded as 
inferior creatures ; though, when danger threatens, they display a cour- 
age, and, it may be added, patriotic ferocity, not inferior to that of their 
masters. 

The Montenegrin is, however, not a savage in his customs, as some 
unfriendly critics have asserted. He is humane to the lower animals, and 
if he was, until lately, in the habit of mutilating his prisoners, he only 
carried into practice a custom as old as the times of the Odyssey, though 
it was so repugnant to the feelings of Europe that it has long since been 
prohibited. In other respects the Montenegrins do not differ widely from 
their neighbors. They are most polite to strangers and full of rude hos 
pitality. Their women are not nearly so handsome as the men, and 
owing to the hard work which is their lot among a nation of warriors, 
fade into premature ugliness at a period when the female of civilization is 
in her prime. 
, Fine Himters but Poor Fanners. 

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to add, that they are not very industrious. 
They are too much of the aristocrat for toiling and moiling. The Mon- 
tenegrins are the flower of the Slav people, so far as appearance goes, and 
contrast wonderfully in this respect with the Bulgarians. The one looks 
a peasant ; the other a gentleman. But while the peasant Bulgarian will 
convert a desert into a garden, the Montenegrm will starve, rather than 
strain his muscles in any such task. The mountineer has the best of 
tveapons, but the plough with which he scratches his field is the same 
rude implement which his ancestors used a thousand yeai s ago. It is 
hard for these people to realize that, for the future, they must live as men 
of peace, or that a condition of sempiternal warfare is not the condition ol 
freemen. 

Education, if general, is not high, and naturally, a people who do not 
appreciate reading cannot be expected to be great buyers of literature, 
" There are," writes a correspondent, " two newspapers published in 
Montenegro — one the official journal, and the other a popular medical 
paper. Sixty copies of the latter are sold in Montenegro. When you 
read the paper, and find that its articles are on the way to live in health 
throughout the year, the evil consequences of wearing earrings, the 
proper treatment of infants, etc., you are surprised, not that so few, but so 
"snany copies of such a paper should be bought by Montenegrins. 
Absence of Soap and Cleanliness. 

It is earnestly to be hoped that the laudations upon soap, which this 
paper contains, may have some influence on those who read it. We regret 




MORIvACK MUSICIANS AND DANCERS OF ZARA. 



118 



A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 119 

to State that after their baptism the majority of Montenegrins do not often 
come in contact with water, except when it rains. If any of our readers 
object to calHng an unwashed Montenegrin a gentleman, we can only 
plead that the Grand Monarque himself rarely washed his hands, and that 
the rehgion of soap is quite of recent date, and very English in its cult. 

Perhaps the most interesting institution in Cettinje is the tree of jus- 
tice. Here the Prince sits, and to him come the meanest of his subjects. 
English law has a maxim — the law does not care for trifles. The present 
Prince of Montenegro said, " If you suffer injustice to the value of one 
farthing, and you do not come and complain to me, you are not yourself 
worth a farthing." Justice is well administered in Montenegro, but all 
who have, or think they have, suffered wrong, can go direct to the Prince, 
and the Prince will either decide the case himself or will direct a new 
trial. Montenegrin law is, however, cheap ana speedy, and there are no 
lawyers in Montenegro. From this patriarchal tree you see on your 
right the palace-of the Prince, and on the left a grassplot, on which several 
Montenegrins are lazily lounging. These pri'^-.oners are the criminals of 
the State. They are self-guarded. Should any of these prisoners think fit 
to return to his native village before his term of imprisonment has 
expired, he can do so, but he will at once be recognized and re-incar- 
cerated. It is extremely rare for them to attempt to escape from the house 
and grassplot' which have been allotted to them by their Prince. Most of 
these men are homicides, and rarely thieves. There are a few female 
prisoners, and of these the-majority are in prison for murdering their 
husbands. 

Marriages and Divorces. 

Marriages for love are a product of civilization. An affair of the heart, 
culminating in marriage, is almost unknown among Southern Slavs. The 
parents arrange these matters, and often a maid has not seen her future 
husband until she meets him at the altar. We will not say positively that 
these marriages for convenience are the cause of the prevalence of divorce 
here, but it is a striking fact that during one year there were as many as 
200 divorces in this little country. 

The fair Montenegrins look every one of them a queen, as they march 
along the streets of Cettinje, or even when they are toiling with a load of 
sixty pounds on their back up the steep road from Cattaro. Yet when 
roused they can be viragoes as well. If they work hard they also exert 
much influence, and, as in Albania, a young girl, it is said, may travel 
from one end of the territory to the other in perfect safety, her presence 
protecting even an enemy from outrage. It is an interesting fact that 



120 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



among some peoples who are accounted as not more than half civilized, 
there is an extraordinary respect for woman. This regard is often more 




WALLACHIAN PEASANT. 

marked among rude tribes than among the refined classes of cultivated 
society, as may be seen in many parts of Eastern Europe. 



A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 121 

The Morlacks are that branch of the Croato-Serbian people who in- 
habit Dalmatia, one of the Austrian crown-lands. They speak the Slavic 
form of speech known as lUyric, but this, like the other dialects, local 
and otherwise, belonging to the Illyrian group, is so little different from 
Servian, that a traveler knowing any one of them could, without much 
difficulty, make himself understood throughout the entire country peopled 
by the other subdivisions of the family. The word Morlacks — which 
ought properly to be spelled Morlach — is said to mean " sea-Vlachs," or 
strangers. 

The Wallacliian Province. 

Under the title of Wallachians are comprehended the people of Walla- 
chian Moldavia and some of the neighboring provinces. The Walla- 
chians proceed from the fusion of the Roman colonies, established by 
Trajan, and of some Greek settlements, with the ancient Slavonic inhabi- 
tants of these countries. The language of this people corresponds with 
their triple origin, for it possesses the characteristics of Latin, Greek, 
and Slavonic. 

The Wallachians, originally subject to the kingdom of Bulgaria and to 
that of Hungary, formed, in 1290, an independent state, the first prince 
of which was called " Rudolph the Black." About 1350 one of their 
colonies occupied Moldavia, under the leadership of a prince named 
Dragosch. But the Wallachian State was never very firmly constituted, 
and in 1525 the battle of Mohacz reduced it finally under Turkish rule. 
The Turks did not disturb the internal government of the Wallachians, 
but obliged their prince to pay an annual tribute to the Porte, and to 
maintain Turkish garrisons in all their strongholds. But Wallachia, 
being situated between the Ottoman Empire on one side, and Hungary, 
Poland, and Russia, on the other, became the scene of most of the strug- 
gles between its formidable neighbors. It was trampled over by both 
Christian and Mussulman, and this terrible situation resulted in ruin and 
exile to its unfortunate inhabitants. The princes who occupied the 
thrones of Wallachia and Moldavia were appointed by the court of Con- 
stantinople, who sold this dignity to the highest bidder. The princes 
were then only a species of pasha, or Turkish governor ; their court was 
formed after the pattern of those of the Byzantine emperors, but they did 
not possess the military power of the Turkish pashas. 

This situation has changed since 1849, when a treaty was concluded 
between the Porte and Russia. By the terms of this treaty, the dignity 
of prince was maintained during the lifetime of its possessor. New events 
have happened, and, since the year 1 861, by a firman of the Sultan of 



122 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



Turkey, the name of Rou mania has been given to the Danubian Princi- 
palities, the poUtical 
protection of which 
is shared between 
Russia, the Porte, 
Prussia, and Austria. 
The inhabitants of 
Wallachia are re- 
markable for pa- 
tience and resigna- 
tion ; without these 
qualities it would 
have fared hard with 
them during the ca- 
lamities which have 
at all times befallen 
their country. They 
are men of a mild, 
religious, and sober 
temperament. But 
since they are un- 
able to enjoy the re- 
sult of their labor, 
they do as little work 
as possible. The 
milk of their kine, 
pork, a little maize, 
and beer of an in- 
ferior quality, with a 
woolen dress, is all 
they require. On fete 
days, however, the 
peasants appear in 
brilliant costumes. 

The Wallachians 
are generally of con- 
siderable height, 
WALLACHIAN PEASANT GIRL. well-made and ro- 

bust; they have oblong faces, black hair, thick and well-arched eye- 
brows, bright eyes, small lips, and white teeth. They are merry, hospi- 




A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 123 

table, sober, active, brave, and fitted to make good soldiers. They pro- 
fess Christianity according to the rites of the Greek Church. The priests 
or curates are chosen from the body of the common people, from whom 
it would, as far as appearance goes, be no easy task to distinguish them. 
When not attending to clerical functions, they follow ordinary trades and 
employments. 

Towns are rare in Wallachia, the country being still far in arrear of the 
surrounding civilization, in consequence of its political subordination to 
Turkey, and its bad internal organization The country of the Danube, 
indeed, has practically but one large town — that is, Bucharest. There 
are thus, in this land, no centres whence light could emanate ; it is in 
an incomplete state of civilization, which can be improved only by an 
internal revolution, or by the collision which, sooner or later, must come, 
of its powerful adjacent empires. 

However, nature seems to await human industry with open arms; 
there are few regions upon which she has lavished her gifts as she has 
here. The finest river in Europe bathes the southern frontier of these 
provinces, and opens a way into fertile Hungary and the whole Austrian 
Empire, offering, moreover, a communication between Europe and Asia 
by the Black Sea ; but this is all in vain, for hardly a single vessel glides 
over its waves. Its rocks, its shoals, the Turkish garrisons on its banks, 
and, above all, the plague, inspire fear. Other fine rivers flow from the 
summit of the Carpathian mountains, and fall into the Danube ; but they 
serve only to supply fish during Lent, and, being left to themselves, men= 
ace the surrounding country , which, if better regulated, they would fertilize. 
Stately Forests and. Ricli Mines. 

Immense marshes encumber the low parts of Wallachia, and their ex- 
halations produce a continuance of bilious fevers. The most superb 
forests, in which the splendid oaks grow side by side with beeches, pines 
and firs, cover not only the mountains, but many of the large islands in 
the Danube. These, instead of being used in the construction of fleets, 
merely furnish the wood used in paving the streets or roads; for idleness 
and ignorance find no means of raising the blocks of granite and marble, 
of which the Carpathians offer such abundance. The summit of Mount 
Boutchez attains a height of more than six thousand feet, and ail the 
mineral wealth of Transylvania seems to take its origin in Upper Wallachia. 
Copper mines have been opened at Baya di Roma, and iron mines in the 
district of Gersy, where a bed of rocks presents the phenomenon of an 
almost continual fiery fermentation. 

The Aluta and other rivers bring down nuggets of gold, which are 
34 



124 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



collected by the Bohemians, and which indicate the presence of mines as 
rich as those of Transylvania ; but no one thinks of looking for them. 
Only the salt quarries are worked. The climate, notwithstanding two 
months of hard winter and two months of excessive heat, is more favorable 
to health and agriculture than that of any of the adjacent countries. The 
pastures, filled with aromatic plants, supply nourishment even to the herds 
of neighboring provinces, and could support even more than these. 

The wool of their sheep has 
already attained considerable val- 
ue. It is estimated that Walla- 
chia contains two and a half 
millions of sheep, which are of 
threefold variety — one, with a 
short and fine wool; another 
with long coarse wool; and a 
third, which forms a mean be- 
tween the two foregoing varieties. 
Horses and oxen are exported. 
Fields of maize, wheat and bar- 
ley; forests of apple, plum and 
cherry trees ; melons and cab- 
bages, excellent, although enor- 
mous, bear witness to the pro- 
ductive nature of the soil. Many 
of its wines sparkle with a gen- 
erous fire, and with care might 
be brought to equal the well 
known Hungarian vintages. A 
thousand other natural adv^an- 
tages are found there, but they 
are of little avail to a people 
without energy or enlighten- 
ment. 

The Slavonian family compre- 
hends the Russians, Finns, Bulgarians, Servians, and Bosniaks, that is to 
say, the inhabitants of Slavonia; and the Magyars, or Hungarians, the 
Croats, the Tchecks, the Poles, and the Lithuanians, that is, the people 
who inhabit the countries intervening between the Baltic and Black Seas. 
The Slavonians occupy a large portion of Eastern Europe; foraierly 
they had advanced as far as the centre of Germany. The purfs'' t/jje 




SLAVONIAN TEAMSTER. 



A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 125 

of the Slavonian race is to be found in the Servians, inhabitants of 
Servia, Herzegovina, and Hungarian Slavonia. The Bosniaks and Mon- 
tenegrins are also Slavonians. 

The Northern Slavonian is, in general, gentle and patient. His sweet- 
toned language caresses the ear and the mind with expressions full of 
tenderness. He treats his wife and children with the greatest kindness. 
Like the Arab, he loves a life of wandering and adventure beneath the 
open sky, and, like the Arab, he can bear the greatest fatigue. On 
horseback he crosses plains covered with snow, as the Arab crosses the 
burning sands of the desert. Music has a very moving effect on the 
Slavonian. It forms a means of translating his tenderness and his melan- 
choly ; it responds to the vague and cloudy impressions, to the yearnings 
of his swelling heart. The Slavonian peasants cultivate the voice, and 
men, rough and coarse in many other respects, compose melodies full of 
sentiment. The auditors press around the singer, like the shepherds of 
ancient Arcadia, and tears of emotion and pleasure are seen rolling down 
.he unkempt beards of these poor Danubians. 

Blonde Men and Handsome Women. 

M- Teorge Perrot thus describes the peasants of these parts : The 
majority of the men around us have hair which is blonde, or of different 
shades of chestnut. Although much burnt by the sun, they are not gen- 
erally so dark as the Magyars. Many of the women, who are tall and 
slender, are really beautiful. Their eyes especially, which are bright and 
sparkling, and sometimes blue, though more frequently of a dark gray, 
are charming. The lower portion of their face is less agreeable ; the 
chin is usually prominent, and the lips are rather thick. 

Their costume recalls that met with in the East. The men wear a 
slouch hat of black felt with the edges turned up, a linen shirt, and full 
trousers down to the ankle ; this in hot weather, when they are in work- 
ing order, forms the whole dress. One or two loungers, who joined us, 
were more completely dressed than this. 

They wore large boots of thick leather, and over the shirt a waistcoat 
of blue cloth, adorned in front, with white metal buttons, and behind with 
embroidery in yellow or white. On another occasion, when we were on 
the boat, we saw some men who, in addition to this, wore over the waist- 
coat a short cape or half-cloak, which did not fall lower than the waist, 
and of which, as a rule, the sleeves were allowed to hang loose. In 
winter, they add to these warm robes of sheepskin, or large mantles. 

As to the women, they make me think of the Albanians of Attica. 
This fine September afternoon, they are wearing a long chemise, embroid- 




SHEPHERD OF THE MILITARY CONFINES. 



126 



A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 



127 



ered with eyelet holes and colored patterns ; this chemise, which leaves 
the neck very open, would reach to the ground, but in order to admit of 
freer movement in the fields or at home, it is hitched up, and supported 
by a colored girdle wound two or three times round the body ; being 
thus held up, the chemise forms elegant and symmetrical folds, falling in 




TYPES OF SLAVONIAN WOMEN. 

front as low as the ankle, while behind it extends to about half way down 
the calf of the leg. 

Over the head is thrown, in various fashions, a kerchief, which is usually 
white, but which on festive occasions is embroidered with silver and gold; 



128 



PROM POLE TO POLE. 



the ends of this fall down the back, or over the bosom, as may suit the 
taste of the wearer. When the best dress is donned, a cloth apron, the 
color and pattern of which bear a resemblance to the carpets which I 
have met with in Servia and Bosnia, hangs down to the knees. Over the 
chemise is worn a species of waistcoat without sleeves, and ornamented 
with gold or silver embroidery. In winter, they guard against the cold 
by wearing over all a thick overcoat of sheepskin. All the garments 
worn by the women are worked by their own hands and busy fingers, 
during the long winter evenings. 

M. George Perrot remained for rather a long 
period in the provinces now called the Military 
Confines or Frontiers, and he describes the mis- 
erable state in which the Slavonian peasantry exist 
there, where they are obliged to live side by side 
with wild hordes of Mussulman soldiers or pan- 
dours. 

Let us quote a few more of this traveler's im- 
pressions : What struck me in all the villages of 
the Confines through which I passed were the 
guard-stations, before which loitered, or slept 
beside their guns, suspended on the wall, five or 
six " granzers." In summer they wear merely 
their trousers and shirt of coarse white cloth, and 
sometimes a sort of brown jacket with red facings, 
which they also wear for field work. In winter 
they are seen enveloped in their large hoodeo 
cloaks of red cloth ; and, thus equipped and 
armed, guard their flocks on the moors. The 
state furnishes them, for exercise and service, with 
guns similar to those used by regiments of the 
DANUBIAN LADY. line ; but when not on duty many of them prefer 
long guns of Albanian manufacture or shape, with swallow-tailed stocks. 
These guns are transmitted from father to son for several generations. 

Besides these, they wear in their girdles one or two pistols, and a kind 
of dagger with a bone handle inlaid with coral or glass. In this guise 
they do not have much of the appearance of civilized subjects of His 
Majesty Francis Joseph, constitutional Emperor of Austria and King of 
Hungary. Their uniform, consisting of a blue trouser fitting close to the 
leg, and a vest of black or white wool, is only produced on field days or 
in war. 




A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 



129 



But what is it that these sentinels are guarding ? This is just what I 
have never been able to understand. No enemy, from Belgrade to Sissek, 
was threatening, and these villages are exposed to no more disorder than 
those of the neighboring provinces, where they dispense with all this 
anned exhibition. This, therefore, is another of the useless and errone- 
ous consequences of the military regime. Here are hands taken day after 
day from their labor in the fields, and with no greater advantage than 
that of acquiring the habits of idleness and drunkenness, usually con- 
tracted during the period of barrack-room inactivity. 

They have maxims which accurately indicate their character : " Go late 
to the field and return early so as to avoid the dew ; if God does not aid, 




MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA CONSTANTINOPLE. 

what is the use of working?" Being accustomed to rely only, as they 
say, " upon God and the Emperor," they refuse to recognize the advan- 
tages to be gained from any modern invention, better tools, or more 
advanced methods of cultivation. " Thus I found it, and thus I will leave 
it," is a saying of which they often make use in speaking of their patri- 
monial domain. 

The only thing which, in spite of all the shackles which enchain and 
benumb their limbs, would have been able to arouse their mind and im- 
part to them some desire for progress, is instruction. But ignorance is 
profound in the Military Confines ; the regimental schools that exist are 
very insufificient both in number and quality ; in certain districts, espe- 
cially in Southern Croatia, the villages are so distant from one another, 



130 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 







{ t 






that the cnildren who do not dwell in the borough where the school is, 
are unable, without difficulty, to go there at any time. Besides, why 
should the government do much as regards instruction? It is clear that, 
if the people of the Confines were better taught, they would be less 
resigned to their hard lot. If it rested entirely with the government, the 
schoolmaster would be entirely banished from these parts. 

Upon the banks of the Danube and of the Save, where the Confines 
abut upon the river, which is continually traversed by packet-boats, 

travelers and merchandise, the 
people of the frontiers have nev- 
ertheless daily cummunication with 
the inhabitants of the neighboring 
provinces, and even with strangers. 
This contact somewhat opens their 
minds and suggests new ideas ; but 
it is chiefly in Southern Croatia, 
that the characteristic features of 
the granzer are most frequent and 
striking. There commences, south- 
east of Karlstadt, what is termed 
the " dry frontier ; " this is no 
longer a water-course, such as the 
Danube or Save, but a line purely 
conventional, forming the boundary 
between Austria and Turkey. 

Surprises and hand to hand 
combats were recently matters of. 
frequent occurrence upon this fron- 
tier, which is more difficult to 
define and to preserve. At the 
commencement of this century cer- 
tain forts, and other places, such as Zettin, which the Turks assaulted 
in 1809 and 1813, were still the subject of dispute. Cases of 
armed brigandage and assassinations, which were veiy common in 
ihe whole of this country, are now becoming rarer ; but theft is 
the crime which requires most frequent punishment. The ancestors of 
the granzers lived chiefly by plunder, and such habits are not removed 
in a day. 

No city in south-eastern Europe outranks Constantinople. It has a 
beautiful situation, is possessed of fine buildings, great wealth and attrac- 







-4r 



marble staircase in the 
sultan's palace. 



A TRIP THROUGH EASTERN EUROPE. 



131 



tive residences, and has enough of antiquity to interest the scholar and 
historian. Its religious edifices are justly celebrated. 

The Mosque of St. Sophia was originally a Christian church, erected 
in honor of the Divine Wisdom. It was built by the Emperor Justinian, 
between the years 531 and 538. It is in the form of a Greek cross, 270 
feet long by 243 feet wide, and is surmounted by a central dome which 
rises 180 feet above the floor. The building has, also, two larger and six 
smaller semi-domes, and four tall minarets, the latter added by the Mo- 
hammedans. From without, the edifice presents a magnificent appear- 
ance. 

The interior is very handsome, but the effect is marred by the numerous 
cords which hang from the ceiling to within five feet of the floor, suspend- 
ing lamps of colored glass, ostrich eggs, artificial horse tails, and othe? 
ornaments admired by the faithful. The roof rests upon one hundred and 
seventy columns of marble, granite, and porphyry, many of which were 
taken from Roman temples. The church, though undoubtedly , ne of 
the grandesfreligious edifices in the world, has a gloomy and forbidding 
aspect. 

The Mosques of Suleiman, the Magnificent; of Sultan Achmed, and of 
Mohammed II., are noted edifices. The first named is the most beautiful 
in Constantinople. 

The Bazaars of Constantinople are among its chief attractions. These 
consist of large fireproof buildings lighted from above, in which hundreds 
of tradesmen and shopkeepers retail their wares, and some of which en- 
close severa overed streets. Here are displayed in the greatest profu- 
sion all the wares known to the commerce of the East. They are more 
extensive than those of Damascus and constitute almost a citv within a 
cit}' 





132 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 

How the Russians Look — Peculiar Styles of Dress— White Cap and Shapeless Great 
Coat — Fur Garments in Dog Days — Flowing Beards — National Peculiarities of 
Character — Trusting in God, Chance and the Czar — Anarchists more Noisy than 
Numerous — Absence of Comfort in Russian Hotels — Universal Use of Tobacco — 
The Czar's Absolute Sway — Peasants Ignorant and Loyal — Immense Army and 
Navy — Fine Old Moscow — Famous Kremlin — Domestic Life and Customs — 
Houses and Villages — Scant Household Furniture — Simple Food — Summer Dress 
of Peasants — Agricultural Pursuits — Hunting— Amusements and Drunkenness — 
Russian Nobility — Droll Mixtures in Russian Character — Servants who Serve You 
Faithfully and Steal Your Money — Lying to Get a Glass of Whisky — The Crimea — 
Appearance of Sebastopol to-day — Traces of the Great Siege — The Samoyedes — 
Wanderers on the Shores cf the Arctic Ocean — Remarkable Costumes — Sledges 
and Tents — People of the Eastern Caucasus — Moslem Fanatics- 
Great Variety of Dialects — Clean Houses and Shabby Clothes, 

HE Russians, possessing certain characteristics in com- 
mon, are a sufificiently varied class, as any one must 
admit who has ever watched the company at one of the 
great fairs, or who has looked for an hour at the people 
passing along the streets of Moscow or St. Petersburg. 
Their dress is in no way sumptuous, or even picturesque, 
but it is, notwithstanding, strikingly peculiar. Fifty or 
sixty years ago it might have impressed the visitor as 
still stranger, for at that period Bokharans and Persians 
in silken costume, Chinese in pigtails, and even Ostiaks and Samoyedes 
in fur, might have been seen among the crowd frequenting the busier 
parts of many of the now very European-like cities of Russia. 

Farther east, some of these folk are still common enough sights ; but 
even the Tartars, Armenians, and Persians are prone to sink their dis- 
tinctive costumes, compromising with their conscience and their con- 
venience by wearing merely the head-dress of their native lands. Nowa- 
days, everything is more or less Frankish. Yet even in these degenerate 
times there is much that is interesting from the visitor's point of view in 
these by-ways of the West. The " chimney-pot " hat is seldom seen, 
even on the heads of the more fashionable people, while the humbler folk 
still cling to what may be considered the national garb. This consists of 
a black or white cap, with the brim drawn down on the brow, and almost 

133 




134 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



on the very eyes ; a long, loose, shapeless, dark blue or brown great-coat, 
flowing down to the heels, and heavy top-boots up to the knees. 

In the case of well-to-do peasants, fresh from the country, you may 
catch here and there, between the folds of the great-coat, a sight of the 
red blouse or of the broad red sash and black velvet breeches which 
were once popular in rural districts. But as a rule the dark, long gabar- 
dine hides everything, and, bating the color or tissue, the same medley of 
international rags seems equally to suit Russian or Tartar, Moslem or 




ALEXANDER II. ASSASSINATED BY A DYNAMITE BOMB, MARCH 1 3, 1 88 1. 

Christian, Gypsy or Jew, merchant or broker ; and idlers of the middle 
classes wear- the cutaway jacket and wideawake hat common to all 
Europe. Gentlemen of the higher ranks appear either in military or 
civilian uniform, and they also throw over it the heavy riding cloak, 
regardless of the stifling heat ; for, indeed, nothing is more common than 
to see rich and poor, old and young, cumbered with large fur coats and 
caps throughout the dog days. 

The hairiness of the Russian has often been noticed. The lower 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 135 

classes, and even the merchants who do not ape fashionable manners, all 
wear the full, flowing beard, and many of them allow their hair to grow so 
long that it looks like a mane down their backs, though most of them wear 
it clipped straight round by a barber, who, when a customer goes to him 
for his half-yearly shearing, claps an iron top on the head and then snips 
off the refractory locks which protrude beyond its rim. The humbler 
order of Russians do not, however, spend much time over their hair. 
The thatch on the head looks like a mat, and the beard and whiskers are 
generally dishevelled and tangled, though, it ought to be added, this 
frame is in excellent keeping with a face that may not have seen soap for 
several weeks on a stretch. 

Amid this crowd walk with stately mien the priests of the Greek 
Church, whose hair or beard, like those of the laity, are uncut, but care- 
fully combed and smoothed. These men are frequently tall and hand- 
some, and the air of composure with which they go about their duties 
imparts to them a dignity which is not lessened by the official robes, 
without which they never stir abroad. The monks, or " black clergy,'' 
wear flowing gowns and tall cylindrical hats, from which veils fall down, 
partly covermg their faces. The parish priests — or white clergy — are 
dressed very much the same, but wear no veils. These ministers of the 
national faith are almost invariably married. 

Peculiarities of Character. 

it is less easy to describe the Russian character than the Russian dress, 
for a people numbering so many millions must, of course, have many 
diflerent characteristics. Yet, owing perhaps to the common faith which 
the vast majority of them profess, and the great homogeneity of the coun- 
try, added to the fact that the Western world has as yet had little influ- 
ence in Russia outside of the towns, there are many traits which may be 
described as peculiar to the Russian. Much of his disposition is due to 
the Influence of accidental circumstances, and of a too precipitate process 
of civilization. His cunning, superficiality, indolence, instability, intem- 
perance and prodigality, may be reckoned among these untoward effects 
of outside influences ; they are faults not instilled in him by nature. 

Take him all in all, the Russian is a good, simple-minded person, of 
quiet disposition, trusting in God, Chance, and the Czar, and of the most 
placid resignation, no matter what fate Providence may have in stoie for 
him. It is only when he becomes familiar with the ways of towns, or 
learns, as a Government official, that the easiest way to make money is 
to rob the State which employs him, that the typical Russian falls from 
the standard of virtue which we have indicated. Nobility of character is 



136 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



in 'ew -:ountries connned to any one class : the wicKed peer and the un- 
worldly peasant are the special "properties" of the stage. 

Yet in Russia it is, as in Spain and Turkey, almost fatal to the morals 
of a poor man to grow rich, or to rise in the world, for the excellent 
temper, great kindness of heart, natural candor, and loyalty of disposition 
too often diminish in a direct ratio to his elevation in the social scale, A 




ARCHIMANDRITE OF A RUSSIAN CONVENT. 

certain patriarchal spirit is noted as pervading the thoughts and acts of 
the Russians, and the observer is struck by the singular facility with 
which he is impressed by exterior influences and events. There is no 
more superficially pious man than the typical Russian. Ardently devoted 
to his religion and to his country, he considers the Czar to be the supreme 
representative of both. 

It is indeed questionable whether many of the more primitive peasants 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 137 

do not regard their sovereign as the only lawful monarch on earth ; and 
in spite of the plots of Nihilists, and other malcontents — which form an 
ahiiost infinitesimal portion of the population — the great body of the 
Russians are attached, with an inviolable fidelity, to the throne, the church 
and to their ancient customs, be they good or bad, and will never dream 
of disobeying the orders of the Emperor or his officers. The American 
who roams about Europe is sure, sooner or later, to fall in with the traveled 
E ussians. More agreeable people do not exist. They speak all lan- 
guages with equal facility, are at home in any society, and seem, from the 
ease with which they conduct themselves in the midst of surroundings 
which are so different from those in Russia, to be the true citizens of the 
world. 

No Bedding- but Plenty of Tobacco. 

Yet it would be a cardinal error to take these people as the types of their 
nation. They are little better than foreigners. At home, the hotels are with- 
out baths,and almost without water. There is plenty to eat and drink, but 
the traveler must carry his bedding along with him. In Russian hotels — 
we do notspeak of the French or German establishments in the large towns 
— there are neither books nor newspapers, except Russian ones, and what 
ire called " reading-rooms," are generally used by billiard players and 
jmokers. The use of tobacco is universal in Russia. Both sexes use it. 
N'o public and hardly any private dining or drawing-room is free from it. 
Ladies in traveling will calmly pull out a little cigarette case, and have no 
acruple in asking a light from the first male stranger they meet. At the 
bookstalls at the Russian railway stations, the only books of any conse- 
quence are in the Russian tongue, and it is a profound mistake, from 
which the traveler soon recovers, to imagine that even in the best hotels, 
and in the streets of the larger cities, it is possible to get along comforta- 
bly without the use of Russ. The names of the streets, the inscriptions 
over the shops, the notice-boards on the railway carriages and waiting- 
rooms, the bills of fare a*- the restaurants, are usually in Russian, and in 
Russian characters. 

The Czar's Vast Power. 

Of the Government of Russia it is almost needless to say more than 
that it is an Empire, the head of which is the Czar, who exercises abso- 
lute sway over the millions who own him as their temporal and spiritual 
head. In directing the affairs of this vast Empire the Czar is assisted by 
Four great councils, who superintend the various departments, but whose 
power emana.es solely from the head of the State, and can be exercised 
solely through him. The Government of Poland is now merged in that 



mr ilMllii 1 1 lillillii ,ii'fillllili 1 1 1 iliil 



,,,1i|ll||lf.M' illi 





'-yjt \ 






■y 



V, 

1 " l^ 












^.;^;n»'i 






ii A' r 'K»*y vA* 



> I I 

r ' I ' 



138 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 



139 



jf Russia, but Finland enjoys a separate and more liberal organization, 
under a Governor and a Senate partly nominated and partly elected by 
the people at large. 

Since the days of Nicholas, when everything in the shape of reform 
stagnated the Empire has greatly advanced. Law-courts have been 
established in all parts of the Empire, and if the officials are notoriously 
corrupt and lax, this is mainly owing to the people themselves being 
wanting in foresight, firmness, energy or that appreciation of the gifts 
vouchsafed them, which would speedily force the inefficient officials into 
a better train o f work. Russia is an immense rnilitary power. At 



HL^Ml 




COSSACKS AT RIFLE PRACTICE. 

present, the army — regular and irregular — amounts ro 973,135 men in 
time of peace, and 2,618,312 in time of war. The navy is composed of 
389 vessels of every description. This force, however, shows better on 
paper than in reality, though, since the death of Alexander II. there 
have been mimediate efiforts made to render it more efficient. 

Few nations in Europe are stronger than Russia. The towns, even 
were they all discontented and Nihilistic, are few, while the vast array of 
peasants — 63,000,000 in number — are thoroughly loyal, and, being ex- 
tremely ignorant, are not likely for long to be anything else JThese 
people make up the great mass of the army. 

Moscow is the ancient capital of the Russian Empire. It claims a 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 141 

population of 800,000 inhabitants. It lies on both sides of the Moskva 
river, is circular in form, and covers a large area of ground. It is in 
appearance half European, half Asiatic, and this gives to it a grotesque 
aspect in spite of its magnificence. It is enclosed with walls, the streets 
are wide and long, and are in some instances paved. 

Iinniense Collection of Magnificent Buildings. 

The principal object of interest in Moscow is the Kremlin or citadel. 
It is two miles in circuit, and is a city in itself. It was the only part 
of old Moscow that escaped the conflagration at the time of the French 
occupation in 18 12, and the injuries it suffered then have been entirely 
repaired. It is crowded with palaces, churches, monasteries, arsenals, 
museums, and buildings of almost every imaginable kind, in which the 
Tartar style of architecture, with gilded donjes and cupolas, generally 
predominates. There are towers of every form — round, square, and with 
pointed roofs ; belfries, donjons, turrets, spires, sentry-boxes fixed upon 
minarets, domes, watch-towers, walls pierced with loop-holes, ramparts, 
fortifications of every species ; whimsical devices, incomprehensible in- 
ventions, and steeples of every height, style and color, the whole forming 
a most agreeable picture to look on from the distance. 

The Kremlin contains about everything in Moscow of historical inter- 
est, as well as the principal sights of the city. The Imperial Palace is a 
^arge and handsome edifice. Its internal decorations are beautiful, and it 
contains one of the finest suites of State apartments in Europe. The 
Treasury of the Palace contains an extensive collection of historical relics 
^f the earlier Russian sovereigns. 

Domestic Life in Russia. 

It is in the interior, and away from towns, that the Russian is seen at 
his worst physically, and at his best morally. In the far North, along 
the shores of the White Sea, for example, he has to contend with a soil 
almost incapable of growing anything, and a climate, which for the best 
part of the year is simply Arctic. And the habits of the people are in 
keeping with the untoward lot to which they are fated. All kinds of filth 
are thrown out into what passes for a street, until, just as the dunghill is 
beginning to breed pestilence, the kindly snow comes and covers all with 
its antiseptic mantle, and then, when the freshet arrives in the summer, 
the street or declivity is swept clean by the floods of melted ice. 

But a Russian village must be poor in which there is not some attempt 
at ornamentation. There are always several crosses, often elaboratel\' 
carved, and covered with deeply cut mscriptions, or decorated with gay 
incongruous colors. The majority of the houses are built with the««" 




THE CELEBRATED CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL. 



142 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 



143 



gable ends to the street, and in the centre of the gable there is usually 
a window opening on a balcony which, like the framework of the window, 
the ends of the rain-gutteis, and the ends of the ridge of the roof, is often 
elaborately carved and tretted, and sometimes painted in gaudy hues. 
In nearly all of the villages of the North there is a conspicuous arrange- 
ment of railings for the drying of flax, hay, or corn. In the station- 
houses at which the traveler changes horses, the men, and sometimes 
the women — who in Russia do the hardest share of the work — are engaged 
in spinning flax, making nets, or weaving coarse linen ; and in the station, 
besides the universal " samovar," or tea 
Hrn, there is often a draught-board of a 
very rude construction, evidently destined 
to while away the long winter evenings. 
Farther south, however, on the great 
estates of the nobility, the people are 
somewhat better situated, if in the midst 
of an agricultural country, where land 
predominates, and rocks and timber are 
in their proper places. Such a typical 
village, or at least community, has been 
described by Dr. Lansdell. Here — away 
from the region of forests — the houses 
were exactly of two rooms, and built of 
willow, the outer bark of the tree being 
used for roofing, and the inner bark for 
matting and ropes. The interior was 
furnished only scantily. Twenty in the 
home village might possess a bed, and 
but nine of them a bed and a bedstead 
too. It was common, however, for a family 
to possess a cow, one or more horses, and three or four sheep. The food 
of the peasants was extremely simple, consisting of rye bread, soup of 
cabbage and fat ; soaked and boiled buckwheat, eaten with hempseed oil ; 
mushrooms, curds, and onions. For drink they consumed small beer 
made from rye bread, and here and there tea, though this latter has not 
yet become general among them. The clothing of the peasantry was in 
keeping with their food. A man's summer suit consists of a cotton shirt, 
a pair of linen trousers, and shoes of lime-tree bark, the last costing ten 
cents per pair. If a peasant aspires to high boots they cost him three dol- 
lars and a half, and he pays about the same price for his home-soun coat. 




CONVENIENT DRINKING 
FOUNTAIN. 



Niii ■iiHiiiinii mil lii'Hil 







144 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 145 

The nearest market being four miles distant, the people are thrown very 
much on their own resources: doing their own weaving, and dyeing theii 
linen blue. The population, as will be supposed, was largely agricul 
tural, and many families were increasing their scanty income by agricul- 
ture, there being from 200 to 300 hives placed in the surrounding woods, 
paying a due upon each of from five to eight cents per hive. Many of 
the peasants, in addition to tilling their own land, worked for their former 
proprietor, but others leave the place in the summer to seek employment 
as bargemen on the Russian rivers. In winter they make a little by 
hunting. The skin of the fox sells for seventy-five cents, and for a wolf's 
head the Government gives a dollar and a half, the same price, it may be 
observed, as they pay the Siberian natives for the capture of a runaway 
convict. 
, MarryiDg- Young- to Get a Servant. 

" I found the people," so this excellent observer tells us, " not much 
given to amusement. ' Tip-cat ' and ' pitch-and-toss ' are in vogue among 
the men, knucklebones among the children, and the girls join hands in a 
ring and sing with or without the accompaniment of the accordion — the 
only musical instrument within their reach. There was a certain amount 
of drunkenness among the people, but the number of illegitimate births 
was said to be not great. Most of the people marry, and do so when 
voung, the moving cause thereto being that when more help is required 
in a family with sons, it is suggested that one of them should take a wife, 
who, accordingly, is chosen by the son or mother, not so much with an 
eye to a pretty face at sweet seventeen — though that is a common age 
for the girls to marry — as to a pair of strong and brawny arms that shall 
do good service in the father's household. Here the young couple are 
expected to live, under patriarchal rule, the master of the house buying 
what is needful, and the mistress and her daughters adapting it for use. 

The gentry differ widely — from the polished dignitary, whose manners 
are French, and who visits his estate for only a few weeks in the year, to 
the rough, homely squire who never goes near St. Petersburg, and passes 
his whole life within a few miles of the place where he was born. With 
this class, however, the foreign traveler is not apt to come much in con- 
tact. He is more apt to meet with the proprietor who lives in an Eliza- 
bethan mansion, full of Italian paintings, and bric-a-brac, the spoil of 
many Continental tours, in which there is an English governess and a 
German tutor, where any language except Russian may be spoken, and 
the manners of the inmates of which are not very different from those of 
a well-bred family in any part of Europe or America. 
10 



146 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



The Russian character is thus a strange mixture. Charitable to a 
fault, the people are full of the strangest of superstitions, and while sub- 




RUSSIAN PILOT OF THE NORTH SEA. 



scribing freely for the erection of hospitals at home, and the freedom ol 
oppressed Christians in Turkey, will connive at the plunder of the tax- 
payers by the Government officials. These rascals rob everyone with the 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 147 

utmost impartiality — the Emperor, the people and their fellow officials, 
and are never backward at helping the rich to plunder the poor. 

Sometimes a reasonably honest official arrives in a district, but he does not 
long remain, for the rich residents of the neighborhood, finding that they 
cannot blind him with money, or buy his judgment, manage by various 
combinations to secure his removal, so that they may not be incommoded 
in their own little schemes for growing rich by unfair means. When the 
people have recovered from the vices of serfdom a sounder public opinion 
will arise, and when this is the case the officials will find it no more safe 
or profitable to put their hands in the treasury than public employes do 
in other countries better situated. 

'* Jack at all Trades." 

The Russian, however — we must separate the people from the ruling 
class, and the double-dealings with which they are associated — is certain 
to be better liked the longer he is known. He is a child, with a child's 
faults, and many of a child's virtues. A Russian servant may pilfer, but 
he is faithful beyond the fidelity of the hireling. He never tires in your 
service. If he has worked for you all day he will Avork for you all night 
if required. Nothing is too difficult for him to attempt. He is your 
right-hand man in every case of need. He can mend your carriage or 
your harness, and repair your clothes or your boots. 

Give him a good axe, and there is no joiner or carpenter's work which 
he cannot do; nay, if need be, he can build you a new house a most 
single-handed. He can shoot your game, kill and cut up an ox, or do 
any plain cooking you may require. He is the soul of punctuality, and 
if you order him to wake you at four o'clock in the morning, you may 
sleep soundly to the last moment, in the full confidence that at five 
minutes past that hour it will be your own fault if you have not made 
considerable progress with your toilet. He is honest if you trust him, 
but for all that, to earn a glass of whisky he will lie without shame, and 
commit a petty theft without remorse. 

The Far- Famed Crimea. 

The most important point in southern Russia is the Crimea, on the 
Black Sea. Here occurred the celebrated siege of Sebastopol, when the 
allied powers by heroic struggles opposed the aggressions of Russia, and 
checked her grasping spirit The battle of the Alma, and the charge of 
Balaklava, in 1854, are well-known historic events, the latter giving rise 
to one of Tennyson's most spirited productions, commemorating the 
bravery of the allied forces, when 

'•' Into the jaws of death rode the six hundred." 




148 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 149 

A traveler, who has recently visited that locality presents us with a 
graphic description of the place : I steamed into the roadstead of Sebas- 
topol early one lovely morning in the month of June. We had started 
from Odessa the previous afternoon, and my first sight of land was when 
I came on deck in the harbor of Eupatoria. I made out dimly through 
the morning mist the scene of the disembarkation of the Allies and 
farther or the mouth of the Alma. 

Scene of A Famous Battle. 

A little farther and Sebastopol itself came in view, unmistakably Rus~ 
sian in its aspect. The first sight of the town is striking ; and as you 
round the great shoal which stretches out below the massive casemates 
of Fort Constantine, you scarcely realize that the glory of the place is 
departed. But a little further thought and you are conscious of the ruin 
that has fallen on the place. The great roadstead, stretching far away 
^ill it Mses itself among the heights of Inkerman, is silent and deserted. 

As you turn to the right into the harbor, strictly so called, instead of a 
-"owd of merchant vessels lying at anchor, you see only two English 
dteamers being repaired upon the slips. The landing-place itself seems 
to sum up the history of the town, A fine, broad flight of steps leading 
down to the water's edge, surmounted by a Doric colonnade, with the 
date 1846, marks the era of hope and growth; whilst the pillars them- 
selves, scarred here and there with shot, and contrasting strangely with 
the mean, ruinous buildings about them mark the downfall of the hopes 
and the cessation of the growth. 

A Picture of Desolatioi*. 

Sebastopol, indeed, is only just beginning to emerge from the despon- 
dency of the last thirty years. The docks are still a wilderness, over- 
grown with grass and weeds, with old guns and anchors embedded in 
the earth, showing that the work of destruction was well carried out by 
the Allies. In many places you may pass through streets silent and 
desolate as the streets of Pompeii ; houses shattered partly by bombard- 
ment, partly by the destruction wrought by the Russians when abandon- 
ing the place, principally perhaps by the want of firewood felt by the 
Allies during the occupation of the winter of 1851;- 56 

There are, however, not wanting signs of life anc improvement. The 
old barracks at the head of the harbor, betweer that and Drydock Creek, 
still stand up against the sky-line, a ghastly row of empty windows and 
roofless walls four stories high ; but there are lew barracks farther north, 
between the old docks and the roadstead where a large garrison is now 
accommodated. A railway station is nov. open at the head of the hat 



150 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



bor, from which you can go direct in three days and two nignts to Mos- 
cow. Fresh houses have been built during the last two years, and more 
are building. Churches are springing up again with all the glittering 
crnament that marks the Russian style of architecture. 




Once established in Sebastopol, the only difficulty is the means of loco- 
motion. The heat and the dust in the summer months make walking 
almost out of the question ; horses are very difficult to find, and of in- 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 151 

ferior quality when found; while carnages deprive you of your freedom 
of action, and hand you over to a coachman anxious only to hurry you 
over the regular route as quickly as possible, and deaf to your remon- 
strances in an unknown tongue. 

Your bargain once settled with one of these, you may start along the 
high slope overhanging the harbor, descend into the ravine at its head, 
once known as the "Valley of the Shadow of Death," and then, taking the 
road past the docks along the other side of the harbor, pass out by the 
route taken by General Soimonoff on the morning of Inkerman, Then, 
if you are fortunate enough to have the last volume of Kinglake with 
you, you may wander for hours amongst the spurs and hollows which 
run down from the heights to the roadstead, and the valley of theTcher- 
naya ; and tales which at home perhaps seem long and tedious become 
instinct with fire and life when studied upon the .spot. Or, stopping short 
of this, you may turn up the steep path which leads to the Malakoff, 
'/here the remains of the so-called Yellow Tower still form a prominent 
.eature in the scene. 

Point of the Final Assault. 

Here, directly in front of you, is the little green hill of the Mamelon, 
the last stage in the French advance before the decisive assault. To your 
right, on the farther side of the ravine, lie the remains of the Redan, and 
in front of it, but at some distance, the siege works of the English. 

But to an Englishman far from home, the graves of his countrymen in 
a foreign land will be almost more interesting. than the ruined works for 
the possession of which they fought and fell. Stretching in a long irregu- 
lar line across the plateau from Inkerman to Balaklava, these little walled 
enclosures meet you at intervals,, some with handsome tombstones and 
crosses and inscriptions, some discernible only by the little mounds and 
hillocks which mark the resting-place of unknown privates. Yet, melan- 
choly as are these records of actual death in battle, they were not so 
melancholy to my mind as the English cemetery at Suctari, with its tale 
of long protracted disease and suffering. This, though the largest, is but 
one amongst a group of cemeteries, and there are, all together, no less than 
ten groups. 

A Remarkable Race of People. 

The Samoyedes (pronounced Samo-yeds) are wanderers along the 
shores of the Arctic Ocean, and along the dreary wastes which cover so 
much of the inhospitable regions of the North. They are both a Euro- 
pean and an Asiatic people, extending eastward as far as the Tazz, and 
are divided into tribelets, to which different names are applied by the 




SAMOYEDE, IN WINTER DRESS, TRAVELING ON SNOW-SHOES. 

152 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 153 

Russians, if not b)- themselves. In Europe they do not Hve much farther 
east than Mezen, on the White Sea. At Mezen the traveler sees the first 
Samoyedes — drunken, brandy-loving, who hang about the little town 
begging, trading, and stealing, if they get a chance, spite of prison-house 
and knout. Castren, an enthusiastic trav^eler, to whose self-denying 
exertions we are indebted for so much of our knowledge of the Northern 
nomads, could obtain at Mezen no Samoyede interpreter unless he paid 
him in brandy. Only one man could be vouched for as being of a sober 
character. He had to be sent for from a distance, and when he arrived 
he was as drunk as the others. 

The KAnin peninsula is the chief stronghold of the Samoyedes of this 
district ; in the winter, however, they desert the peninsula, and come 
about the town of Mezen, drinking and idling about as usual. The latest 
travelers who have visited them were Messrs. Rae and Brandreth ; and 
to the former gentleman's genial sketch of the people with whom he came 
in contact in the region in question, we are mdebted for the greater part 
ot what follows. Their brandy-loving reputation Mr, Rae confirms. 
Even the mere children, if offered it, will take the share of drink as 
readily as the grown-up topers. The first he met were the idlers, in the 
vicinity of Mezen, who have no reindeer, and no fixed employment, and 
who live on charity, or on their richer neighbors who come in the winter 
from other places. 

Curious Use for a Drum. 

They have no knowledge of books, no written language or tradition, 
and hardly any real religion, their acquaintance with even the forms of 
the Greek Church being of the scantiest description ; nor is any system- 
atic effort made by the Russians to introduce civilization and Christian 
culture amongst them. Their mode of approaching the Deity is not 
unlike that of the pagan Lapps, namely, with a drum ; they also use 
divining instruments to interpret fate. 

The Samoyede is faithful in friendship, capable of no serious crime, 
honest except under great provocation, and will not beg, unless for vodka, 
or brandy ; though, indeed, if what Castren tells us be true, they set their 
women to perform that task for them. " Give me," begged a Samoyede of 
Castren, " another cup of vodka." " What good hast thou done me that 
I should give thee vodka ? " said Castren. " Thou art traveling with my 
reindeer," was the rejoinder. " But I pay thee for them," said Castren. 
" I have given thee good reindeer," urged the Samoyede. " But thy son 
drives badly," said Castren. " Then don't give him any vodka," was the 
paternal recommendation of the somewhat illogical Samoyede. About 



154 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



Christmas these Kanin Samoyedes drive into the neighborhood of Mezen 
to dispose of their reindeer skins and wild fowl, and to provide themselves 
with meal, butter, sour milk, powder, shot, vodka, and other articles. 
After Christmas they again return to the sea ; only a few of the poorest 
of them go to towns where the men employ themselves as drivers, and 
the women as beggars. 

The dresses of the men are, first, a tunic of reindeer skin, reaching half 
way to the knee, with the fur inside, the seams being ornamented generally 




FINLANUERS HUT AND REINDEER. 

with a line of red, or double line, perhaps, of red and blue. Over this is 
worn, in the summer, for cleanliness' sake and protection, a covering of 
similar form in red or blue striped linen. The dress is often beautifully 
ornamented. They have loose boots, generally of white reindeer skin, 
with the fur outward, reaching above the knee, and decorated with stripes 
black, brown or gray fur, and often a little cloth. Under them, in winter, 
are worn half-boots, with the fur inward. The outer garment is identical 
with the Laplander's fur cape, and like it, is decorated with gayly-colored 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 155 

cloth, often red, black or yellow. A band hangs on either side, orna- 
mented with patchwork fur patterns ; these are usually attached to one 
another behind the shoulder, falling over the back, and reaching to the 
waist. 

In the winter, a second tunic is worn. To the cuffs are attached gloves. 
The women's dress is much gayer, though scarcely so handsome. The 
tunic is closer to the figure above the waist, and hangs in a sort of skirt 
to half way below the knees. The body is a masterpiece of beautiful fur 
ornamentation, the various shades and colors being introduced in patch- 
work with great taste. The skirt has three flounces of deep thick fur of 
the glutton-bear or silver fox; between the flounces are gay pieces of 
cloth sewn in patterns. All the sewing is done with thread, made of rein- 
deer sinews, spun simply with the hands and teeth. The head-dress, not 
^often Worn in the summer over the plaited hair, is a small, close fur cap. 
The boots and gloves are similar to those of the men. 
Elegant Sledges and Tents. 

The sledges on which they drive over the dreary wastes are beautifully 
light, consisting of a wooden framework supported on slight runners, nine 
feet in length. The guiding pole is about eighteen feet in length, slightly 
tapering and very heavy. At one end is a round metal knob, at the 
other a sort of lance-head. To stimulate the reindeer they are gently 
tapped on the back with the knob. 

Their tents are of birch-bark, rolled in great sheets round poles, so 
placed as to converge at the top, and secured by a common thong pass- 
ing through them. These tents are kept much more cleanly than those 
of the Laplanders or Eskimo. No remains of food, bones, or any decay- 
ing matter are seen about them, and altogether they are most pleasant 
abodes. In winter the skins are attached to the exterior, the edges all 
stuffed and packed with moss, and the interior is so well protected that 
it is as warm as one of the stuffy underground huts of the Eskimo, and 
twice as cleanly and healthy. 

Reindeer form their chief wealth, but they also shoot with the bow 
and arrow, and in addition to hunting, reindeer driving and other 
pastoral pursuits, do a good deal of fishing. In the winter they skim 
over the frozen snow on snow shoes — overtaking their prey, and 
attacking with spear and arrow. In hunting they are the superiors of 
their neighbors, the Ostiaks ; though, in this respect, it is said that 
their skill is decreasing since they have begun to substitute for their 
native weapon the rude Russian blunderbuss, carrying a ball as big as 
a walnut. 



156 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



Under the name of Lesghians we find a number of petty tribes who 
inhabit the Eastern Caucasus, though, in reality, there are such radical 
differences in their dialects, that were we not compelled to try and extract 
something like order out of the chaos of races in this region, they might 
be fittingly described as fragments of different peoples. Indeed, this idea 
has been hazarded, though, unless we except the Udi, Kubetchi, and 

some other small 
tribes, whose affinities 
are even more doubt- 
ful than those of any 
of their neighbors, it 
is very probable that 
future research will 
show that all of them 
have a common origin, 
though isolation has 
in time wrought a wide 
contrariety in their 
spoken language. 
However, when the 
Lesghians made '" , 
stout a resistance to 
the Russians — and 
Schamyl, the revolu- 
tionist, was a Les- 
ghian, not a Circas- 
sian, as usually de- 
scribed — a fanatical 
attachment to Islam- 
ism was, perhaps, the 
only bond which 
united them against 
TYPICAL NATIVE OF THE EASTERN CAUCASUS. the common enemy. 
In general it may be said that they are all equally illiterate, the only 
race of Daghestan which has a written language being the Avares or 
Avari, though even they have no alphabet, their books being written in 
Arabic characters. The Lesghian tribes are not well spoken of by travel- 
ers ; but then travelers are always tempted to take for granted the dicta 
of those who preceded them. " When I passed through Daghestan," 
says one traveler, " I bad but one attendant, and saw nothing to warn me 




PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 157 

that I was among ' robbers and cut-throats.' It is long since the Russian 
Government put an effectual stop to the deeds which once made travel- 
ing in Daghestan so dangerous. It is, I think, not generally known that 
almost all the Lesghian tribes were Christians before the twelfth century. 
Now they are Mahommedans kindled into fanaticism by the preaching 
of Schamyl's revived Islamism. 

A great drawback to the advancement of civilization among the 
Lesghian mountaineers is the fact that almost every valley has its own 
special dialect not understood very well in the next valley. In this small 
province there are twenty-three distinct languages with innumerable varia- 
tions — none with an original alphabet. This degeneracy is common 
to all the mountain tribes. At present there may be about 600,000 
Lesghians, though so many migrated to Turkey, and perished of hunger, 
disease and privation, that their number has within the last twenty years 
greatly decreased. Their courage was amply displayed in the fierce 
wars they waged under Schamyl for so many years, until, on the 25th 
of August, 1859, the leader of this hopeless revolt, forsaken even by 
his faithful tribesmen, was compelled to surrender. 

The Women Better than the Men. 

But, on the other hand, they are cruelly vindictive, and delight in 
brigandage, are addicted to drunkenness, and excessive smoking. The 
men are fond of gossip, idle, and treat their women as domestic drudges, 
who are of less value than their horses. They and the donkeys perform 
every agricultural operation, and all domestic labor, and are divorced 
whenever the husband tires of them, or can afford to buy a substitute, 
though, as a rule, owing to the poverty of the people, buying is very rare. 
Worn out with weary toil the Lesghian women of the poorer classes are 
seldom good-looking. All, except the wives of the dignitaries, are bent 
with labor, small, and prematurely old. Yet they are affirmed to be 
good spouses, and infinitely more faithful to their share of the marital 
compact than the men. No race is more abstemious than the Lesghians. 
Yet, though badly fed, poorly clothed, and in the habit of going about 
barefooted, they are strong, hardy, and scarcely know what fatigue or 
sickness means. The houses are remarkably clean, but their dress would 
bear a little neatness without subjecting the wearer to the charge of 
dandyism. 

For ages the Lesghians had been the scourge of the Georgians, who 
had, accordingly, no reason for sadness when the fall of Schamyl brought 
their ruthless enemies under the yoke of Russia, and among the earliest 
facts in the history of this race are the accounts of battles fougrht with 




THE LESGHIAN LEADER OF THE GREAT REVOLT IN DAGHESTAM. 
158 



PICTURES OF TRAVEL IN RUSSIA. 159 

these untamed tribesmen, or of the wars which the numerous septs waged 
with each other. In time, however, the hitherto truculent Lesghians will 
change for the better or for the worse. There is amongst them some cap- 
ital raw material on which civilization might work, and as it advances we 
may yet see the fine smith-work and cutlery of Daghestan competing in 
our markets, in excellence, if not in price, with that of our own, as for a 
long time the excellent shawls woven by the Lesghian women, and the 
felt cloaks of Andi, have been held in esteem throughout the Caucasus. 
Immense Extent of Russia. 

The enormous size of Russia to its population, large though this is, 
strikes every one ; yet no country in the world is expanding at the rate 
of the Empire of the Czar. In little more than two centuries the little 
district around the sources of the Dnieper has absorbed half of Europe, 
and overflowed the Ourals and Caucasus, until it has reached the head 
.waters of the Oxus and touched the spurs of the Himalayas. Conquest, 
and the greed of power, has done much to cause this expansion. The 
necessity of having a frontier "scientific" enough to prevent the incursion 
of barbarous enemies has been another factor in the problem of Russian 
advance. 

But the agricultural pursuits of the vast majority of the people have 
been the main, though not at first sight, the most prominent cause 
of the Empire continuing to spread. It is this which has brought the 
nation into contact with the barbarians on their borders, and has thus 
necessitated military occupation to protect the pioneers, or to punish the 
offenders. Within the bounds of old European Russia there is land 
enough to support the entire population of the Empire for ages yet to 
come. But Muscovite agriculture is of the most primitive kind. The 
soil soon gets, exhausted, or decreases in fertility, and the agriculturist, 
finding land plentiful, has no temptation to linger on the same spot 
pampering the lean earth with manures and other incentives to crop-bear- 
ing. Hence it also follows that a people placed in the middle of a country 
so well fitted to support them would not readily adopt the life of a trader 
or mechanic. 



CHAPTER IX. 
THROUGH THE WILDS OF SIBERIA. 

A Country Which is an Immense Plain — Lagoons and Marine Shells— Fossil Remains 
of the Mammoth and Other Animals — Clouds of Mosquitoes — Rich Mines — Me-' 
talic Wealth — Precious Stones — Making Fortunes — Men Who Can Learn Any- 
Mechanical Business — Stealing Gems — Penal Colonies — "Sent to Siberia" — 
Criminals Exiled — Grades of Crime and Punishment — Long Marches Over Frozen 
Wastes — Treatment of the "Unfortunates" — Siberian Society — Parisian Fash- 
ions and Sparkling Champagne — Going Eighty Miles to Attend a 
Ball — Hopeful Future for Siberia. 

HE country of Siberia may be described as one immense 
plain, bounded on the south by mountains, but gradu- 
ally getting lower and lower as it approaches the North, 
until along the shore of the Frozen Ocean it is one dreary 
flat, little raised above the level of the sea. Even there, 
however, as noted in the recent voyage of Prof^sor 
Nordenskj5ld, there is a difference. West of the Lena 
the forest keeps a considerable distance from the shore : 
but to the east of that promontory it aoproaches in the 
form of stunted pines almost to the water's edge. 

It is also evident that the country is, like most of the circumpolar 
region, rising, for lagoons, only separated by a few yards of land from the 
sea, are common all along the coast, and recent marine shells are found 
on the " tundras," or mossy barrens along the coast, while the Liokov or 
Siberian Islands, though almost unknown, ^are said to be scattered with 
the bones of oxen, horses, and other animals, at present unknown even 
in a fossil condition on the mainland, as well as with the remains of the 
mammoth, the fossil tusks of which still form an article of commerce. 

This mammoth was a wool-covered dwarf elephant, which there is 
every reason to believe, lived in the northern part of Siberia, when the 
climate was very much the same as it is now, and whose form has in a 
more or less complete shape been oreserved to this day in the ice or 
frozen soil. 

The region to the west of the Yenisei River presents one monotonous 
level, unbroken by hills of any sort, covered in its northwestern parts by 
forests, though for the greater extent this province is steppe or upland 
160 




THROUGH THE WILDS OF SIBERIA. 



161 



plain. Much of it consists of dry sand, salt marsh, and bogs; one part 
has large birch groves, and is well suited for agriculture. Even where 
the soil is unsuited for crops its fine pastures afford abundance of food to 
the countless herds of reindeer and cattle possessed by the natives. 

Eastern Siberia is more diversified, for in this part of the country the 
plains are intersected by offshoots of several ranges of mountains. Much 
of it is adapted to agriculture, and the South is covered for the greater 



I '-^t'^ 




RAPID TRAVELING ON A SIBERIAN DOG SLEDGE. 

portion of its extent with magnificent forests. Vineyards are common. 

The fruit is excellent, and wine of a fair quality is made, though as yet 

it has not found a market out of the country. The northern part, 

extending to the Arctic Ocean, is for the most part a dreary moss-covered 

"tundra" on which, however, can be pastured, at certain seasons of the 

year, herds of reindeer, though the swarms of mosquitoes which, during 

the warm weather, infest this and every other portion of Siberia, render 

life almost intolerable to man ; and the bots, which attack the deer, 
11 



162 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

combined with the disease which has broken out among them, are rap- 
idly reducing the Samoyedes, Ostiaks, Voguls, and other tribes which 
depend on them, from affluence to poverty. 

Siberia was in early times under Tartar princes, but about 1580 it was 
subdued by the emissaries of the Czsa, and has ever since been looked 
upon, not so much as an integral part of the Russian empire as a con- 
vict settlement, or a region to which colonists could be attracted only by 
offering special inducements. It has an offensive smack of the hulks 
about it still, even though there are many free settlers in the country 
and, indeed, the peasants east of the Ural look upon Siberia as a perfect 
land of promise. Formerly a proprietor was empowered by law to des- 
patch to Siberia any unruly serfs on his estate, and could transport them 
thither without a trial. It is, moreover, shut off either from the markets 
of the South by the long land journey and the exclusiveness of China, 
and by the equally extensive region which separates it from Europe; 
while the great rivers which flow through it, and afford water-ways in 
eve-ry direction, debouch into the Arctic Seas. 

What Siberia Produces. 

Therefore, unless the water-way which the enterprise of Wiggins and 
Nordenskjold have opened up be found practicable, Siberia, until a rail- 
way links it to Russia proper, will remain a country much larger than 
Europe, and yet with only about three and a half million people — savage 
and civilized, bond and free — within its whole boundaries. Hence, with 
the exception of its mines, its trade is unimportant, and its manufactures 
few and languishing. Spirits and leather are, however, produced to a 
considerable extent. Soap-boiling, tallow-melting, and the making of 
stearine candles employ a good deal of capital ; while cotton and avooI 
are woven into coarse fabrics in some of the cities, which like Irkutsk, 
Tobolsk, Tjumen. Omsk and Tomsk have from i7,ooo to 27,000 inhabi- 
tants. 

The fisheries on the great rivers afford occupation for many of the 
native Siberians ; and at the fairs which are periodically held, business is 
done with the most remote parts of Europe and Asia. The mines are, 
however, the great sources of wealth for Siberia at present. At one time 
all of them were Government monopolies, and worked for Government 
alone, but of late most of them have been thrown open to private indi- 
viduals, the Crown simply exacting a royalty, and claiming particular 
gems as its perquisites. The result is that the Government not only 
makes more than it did in former times when it worked the mnies on 
public account, but by abandoning its monopoly has stimulated those 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF SIBERIA. 



163 



directly dependent on their working to greater energy than was evincea 
by pubHc officials sure of their salaries, whether the soil was searched 
after the most antique or most approved method, or whether it yielded 
little or much. 

Large sums are often made by mere peasants in the gold mines of the 
Urals, and particularly in the sands of the River Nertcha and its tribu- 
taries in Eastern Siberia ; indeed, some of the greatest Russian fortunes 
have been accumulate' from this source. Silver, lead, platinum, copper 
(especially the form know n as malachite), iron, coal, tin, cinnabar (the ore 




SIBERIAN WINTER SCENE. 

of quicksilver), zinc, bismuth, arsenic, sulphur, alum, sal ammoniac, nitre, 
natron and naphtha are also found in greater or less abundance in some 
parts of Siberia. Among precious stones the topaz, hyacinth, Siberian 
emerald, beryl, onyx, red and green jasper, chrysolite, red garnet, lapis 
lazuli, bakalite and opals exist in greater or less abundance in different 
parts of this region. 

In the Murinsk district emeralds of extraordinary brilliancy are often 
picked up, as well as other precious stones, in which this district is par- 
ticularly rich. Cinnabar is also abundant, particularly in the vicinity of 



164 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

Nertchinsk, where the ore is worked by the worst class of criminals, ano 
if gold and quartz mines are ever developed in the country, as undoubtedly 
they will be in time, the quicksilver will prove of great value in their 
working. Most of the gems are cut and polished in the country. 
Men Who Can Learn to do Alraost AnytMng. 

The Russian peasant is not an inventor, out he has a genius for imi- 
tating. He has only to be told to go and do so and so, and in time it 
will be done. He will in this manner become a blacksmith, a wooc' 
carver, a copyist of painters, an engineer, or a lapidary, provided that he 
is only given time enough. He will watch the next workman to him 
using his saw, chisel or file ; then he will cautiously imitate him, doing a 
little at a time, and nothing rashly. Next day he will show more skill, 
until in a few 'weeks he becomes a sufficiently skillful workman to be 
entrusted with tasks requiring great judgment and even knowledge to 
execute. The visitor is astonished to find men not above the rank of 
peasant, and in all likelihood convicts under surveillance, executing the 
most beautiful engravings on beryl, amethysts, topaz, and emeralds, or 
carving on jasper and porphyry vases with a skill which could not be 
exceeded, if equalled, in the great centres of fine-art work in Europe. 
Yet such intelligent laborers are not paid more than one dollar per month, 
with rations of a few pounds of black' bread. They are quite content 
with their lot, and toil on to make fortunes for the rich mine-owners, who 
live in great state in fine mansions. 

Systematic Stealing. 

Even the master workmen or overseers are only paid some fifty or sixty 
dollars per annum, but they, like the ordinary laborers, have their 
perquisites, in the unrecognized pilferings which they can manage to 
effect among the treasures they handle. Indeed, if we are to credit the 
gossip of the Siberian towns, only a moiety of the gems discovered find 
their way into the hands of their legitimate owners; and though Govern- 
ment officials are not allowed to own mines, it is reported that they are 
not the most stoical of those who find amethysts and topaz, lying about 
unnoticed, too great temptations for ordinary virtue. The buying and 
selling of precious stones forms a business which all classes dabble in. 

The visitors to a Siberian town are, soon after their arrival, waited on 
either with stones cut and uncut, by the recognized or by the irregular 
agents of the numerous lapidaries or dealers. The very children dog the 
new arrivals at every step with rare bargains wrapped up in bits of rag, 
either on their own account or as the least suspected means of entrapping 
the unwary traveler into purchasing at what seems a low price stones 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF SIBERIA. 



165 



worth next to nothing, or which may have been made by the skillful 
artificer of artificial gems in Paris or Vienna, and exported to Siberia. 




ONE Ob Hit: PRISONERS OF A SIBERIAN CHAIN-GANG. 

But Siberia is, in the minds of the world at large, associated with some- 
thing more familiar than either furs or precious stones. For a centur^v^ 



166 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

and a half no tidings have come from the North more familiar than the 
news that so many people have been " sent to Siberia." Since the days 
of Peter the Great it has been the doom of tens of thousands — gentle and 
simple, high and low, criminals the vilest, patriots the loftiest, dreamers 
the most imprudent. In 1874, nearly 15,000 wended their way thither, 
and in 1879, the number of" unfortunates" was even greater. The word 
conveys to the mind of Southern Europe all that is most repulsive in 
penal banishment. Instinctively the mind of the newspaper reader who 
catches the word recalls the " Exiles of Siberia." He pictures to himself 
long dreary troops of " unfortunates " trudging through the snow, or 
perishing of hunger and cold and misery long before they reach the 
mines of Ural, or the jasper quarries of Ekaterinburg. He hears the 
clanking of the chains, the moan of the exiles, and the crack of the 
Bashkir Tartar's whip, as he drives along the victims of the " Third 
Section of the Imperial Chancellery," to lead a desolate existence and die 
a felon's death amid the desolations of Siberia. 

A General Receptacle for ** Jail-Birds.*' 

Even in Russia there is a dread of the name which is not altogether 
inspired by its penal terrors, with which the refractory subjects of the 
Czar are only too familiar. But, in reality, our ideas of Siberia are, like 
the majority of popular impressions transmitted by tradition, altogether 
beside the truth. With the winter's snows we should contrast the flower- 
covered plains of summer, the luxuriant corn-fields and purple vineyards 
of autumn in Southern Siberia. Mines there are, and very rich ones too, 
but there are also noble cities, splendid residences, and society as polished 
as any in Europe. Siberia, indeed, is a general place for emptying the 
jails of Russia, and men are banished to Siberia who would, in other parts 
of Europe, merely suffer a few years' imprisonment. 

And of late years the traditional horrors of exile over the Urals have 
greatly altered for the better, though doubtless the worst class of crim- 
inals are not treated with any great leniency. The great numbers sent 
at different times have leavened the whole of society in Siberia. Indeed, 
if we take into account them and their descendants^, as well as the con- 
victs whose sentences have expired, and who have remained in the coun- 
try, they form the most numerous portion of the population. No traveler 
can have journeyed over the Ural mountains without meeting long strings 
of exiles, some of whom have been on the road six, eight, or ten months, 
and sometimes, as in the case of those destined for the settlement in the 
Amoor Valley and Kamtchatka, even two years, though of late the exiles 
for the maritime parts of Eastern Siberia have been despatched by sea. 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF SIBERIA. 



167 



The worst are chained, but, except in the vicinity of the towns through 
which they may pass, great leniency is usually shown to the " unfortu- 
nates," as with kindl) tolerance the exiles are styled by the country 




people. The women and children — especially when they are the families 
of the convicts, permitted to accompany them — are usually conveyed in 
wagons, or, farther north, in reindeer or dog-sledges ; while the political 
Drisoners of rank, when once they are clear of the large cities, may be 



168 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



seen consorting with the officers of the guard, and even sharing their 

meals in the block-houses along the route. 

The place they are sent to is proportioned to their turpitude, the worst 

offenders being despatched farthest from the boundaries of Russia in 

europe, for instance, 
to the shores of the 
Arctic Sea, and the 
eastern provinces,' 
while the lighter cul- 
prits are permitted 
to settle down in 
Western Siberia, im- 
mediately to the east 
of the Urals. This 
class of convicts are 
usually condemned 
only for short terms, 
and are designed for 
colonists on the ex- 
piration of their tern 
of forced labor. 
Even before that 
date they are often 
employed in the 
Government service, 
more like ordinary 
laborers than as 
legal slaves. The 
third and highest 
class of exiles are 
condemned for mild 
crimes. In fact, they 
are considered to 
have expiated their 
offences by the time 




EbCAPING ACROSS 



AN E\ILE EbCAPING ACROSS THE FRONTIER. 

they arrive in the country, and are at once established as proper colonists, 
sometimes in villages already existing, at another time in new ones laid 
out for them. 

Siberian society, constituted to a great extent of such elements as these 
described, is very genial, and frequently refined, but not moral. Many 



THROUGH THE WILDS OF SIBERIA. 



169 



of the convicts are political offenders, some of the highest education and 
nobility of character; but a vast number who have gained a certain 
amount of freedom, or whose sentences being expired, have settled down 




m the counti},are of quite anothci class Actual ciimmals have no 
place left them for repentance ; they are always under the jail ban. But 
offenders of the higher class, and especially political exiles, are rarely 
scowled on, Russian society is the most tolerant in the world, and 



170 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

since political exiles have increased, the front of their offending has 
ceased to be visible. They are after a year or two received into the best 
company, and in every way obtain the treatment their rank and educa- 
tion would have entitled them to at home. It is only the worst offend- 
ers who are not allowed to be accompanied by their wives and families. 

Of course, there is in the country a large amount of the worst criminal 
element. All the Siberian unfortunates have not been Nihilists or politi- 
cal offenders. Hence the jail taint attaches to many villages, and even to 
the large cities. But with such people the traveler does not come much 
in contact, and the severe police regulations secure him against any 
serious annoyance from their attentions. Civil and military officials are 
principal people, and among them life seems one continual round of 
pleasure, especially in South Siberia, where the summer and autumn cli- 
mate is excellent, though, as elsewhere throughout the country, the 
winter cold is severe, but dry and healthy. 

To those who have lived in the country in any other capacity than 
that of convicts, the name which to Europe is redolent of all unsavory 
memories recalls only sweet reminiscences. The families of officials will 
often, even in St. Petersburg and Moscow, talk longingly of the pleasant 
days of " Sibir," and the " good society " of, say Irkutsk, is as refined as 
that of any European city of the same size. The interior of the houses is 
more comfortable, Parisian fashions more brilliantly represented, and the 
champagne sparkles there in greater profusion and better quality than in 
many a fashionable saloon of the most important European cities. While 
in Europe people think twice before they start on a visit of a few miles' 
distance, a ball in Siberia sometimes brings together people from dis- 
tances of eighty to one hundred and more miles across rivers, hills, preci- 
pices, and over roads and bridges, which would terrify a European 
brought up in the luxuries of a refined civilization. 

There is, doubtless, a great future for Siberia. The mighty rivers per- 
meating the country on to the very confines of Mongolia will form great 
highways down which the wool, beef, timber, wheat, wine, and ores of 
Siberia, as well as the fossil ivory found on its shores, will find their way 
to Europe. Nor has the discipline of the penal settlements of the country 
which, after very exhaustive inquiries on the subject, we can affirm to be 
in modern times, as a rule, firm without harshness, been without good 
effect, for in no part of his dominions is the Czar more adored ; and it is 
noted that the most turbulent characters often becoKie, after a few years 
of " Sibir," docile citizens and industrious farmers. 



CHAPTER X. 



QUAINT OLD HOLLAND. 

A Vety Attractive Country— Fight to Keep out the Ocean— Ancient Dykes— Towns 
Below the Level of the Sea —Shrinkage of the Zuyder Zee— Peter the Great— A 
King Working as a Ship-Carpenter— Patience and Industry of the Dutch— Domes- 
tic Life and Comforts— Poor Country and Rich Inhabitants— Farmers' Houses 
Furnished with Every Luxury— Passion for Cleanliness— Universal Scrubbing- 
Mercantile People— Efficient Eaters and Drinkers— Fish and Vegetables— Drink- 
ing and Smoking Habits— Little Intemperance—Singular Customs of Courtship 
and Marriage— Celebrating the Wedding— Largest Town in Holland— How 
Amsterdam gets its Nnme — Industries and Commercial Importance— Numer- 
ous Canals — Abominable Stenches — Art Treasures — Galleries of Paintings— 

Wind-mills— Church Chimes— A Country "Great in its Small- 

ness " — Hospitality a National Trait. 

^^Tis impossible for the dullest of tourists to run through HoUant 
without every hour seeing something quaint^ something 
attractive, something worthy of admiration. A large per- 
centage of the country, if left to nature, would be simply 
swamp, peat bog, and sand-hills. A considerable portior 
is reclaimed from the sea, and is protected from submerg- 
ence only by artificial barriers, while some of the most 
fertile regions were at one time actually under water. To 
the student of his species there is no more inspiriting spec- 
tacle than this continual contest between the intelligence of puny man 
and the mechanical might of Nature, seemingly so irresistible. 

From Holland to Denmark, the traveler — be he ever so unobservant — 
is the witness of this mighty battle between the sea and the land ; a fight 
that has been going on since long before the dawn of history; that occupies 
the earliest books written regarding these lands and waters ; that fills 
the chronicles of the Middle Ages ; that is still going on, and which, there 
is no possible doubt, will rage until the crack of doom. 

From the Zuyder Zee to the Baltic, he who runs may read of this war 
fare in dyke and marsh and canal, and will note that, as a rule, man has 
beaten the sea. He has shut it out by huge artificial buttresses, wheedled 
it off by water-wheels and engines, and then bade it defiance as he peace- 
fully ploughs the sandy land, or makes good butter and bad cheese from 
the sleek kine fattened on fields where, within the memory of his father, 

171 





172 



QUAINT OLD HOLLAND. 



173 



the seaweed grew. He must be a misanthrope indeed who can listen at 
Walcheren or the Helder to the roar of the waves beating against the 
flood-gates high over his head, without a certain tremulous satisfaction at 




knowing that, but for these works, hamlet and village, city and farm for 
many a league, would, in less time than it takes to write these words, be 
under water. 

Yet the fight is a stern and unceasing one. Day and night the corps 



174 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

of engineers watch their entrenchments and earthworks ; and the merest 
trickle through a crack in the wall at West-Cappel or at Halfweg would 
raise a greater din in that world which lies between the Schelde and the 
Dollart than the fall of Stamboul or the sack of Moscow. For by these 
the " water-rats of Holland " live by a world which has ceased to send 
its ships to them. Holland is one vast meadow, bounded seaward either 
by dykes or by sand-hills thrown up by the waves. These sand-hills 
are invaluable when they keep out the sea, but the sea cannot always 
consider the convenience of its enemy, and occasionally throws them 
across the entrances to harbors, bringing ruin in another way. And so, 
in the end it gains the masteiy. 

The Zuyder Zee, once ploughed by the keels of thousands of ships, is 
so rapidly becoming useless for navigation that there has been a proposal 
to drain it, and thus gain from it as land what there seems little hope of 
ever again obtaining from it as water. 

Battle with tlie Ocean. 

Everywhere is the same story of the sea shoaling up the harbors, and 
bringing destruction on cities once more or less "proud and luxurious." 
It is a relief to arrive at Harlingen from those " Dead cities of the Zuyder 
Zee," and find it possible to sail into a harbor, albeit not an exceedingly 
busy one. Yet here we have not heard the last of the sea and its bom- 
bardment of the land. The present town occupies the site of a much 
more important one which was entirely swallowed up by the sea in 1 1 34 
Again and again did the land in the fight get the worst of it, until in. 
1566 Robles de Billy, the Spanish Governor, surrounded the whole prov 
ince by dykes, on one of which stands his statue in testimony that the 
traveler's tale is true. 

It is pleasant to escape from the wave-washed shore, and run eastv/ard 
through Groningen. Still, there are plenty of canals and plenty of low 
lands in this province. But we once more get into a region of living men 
and living towns. After rich, green, flat, picturesque Holland, even 
the heathery Hochmoor of Oldenburg, with its peat bogs and starved 
patches of buckwheat, and the thin fields of Hanover are pleasant to 
look at as a relief For a time at least, until we reach the shore of 
Holstein, we have but glimpses of that gallant — though terrible — battle 
between land and sea. We come to a region where it is no longer neces- 
saiy to pierce 

" with gigantic piles 

Through the centre of the new catched miles," 

and to the stake a " struggling country bind," as Andrew Marvel ex- 




V>ETER THE GREAT WORKING AS A SHIP-CARPENTER IN HOLLAND, 



1T6 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

presses the facts which we have described less metaphorically, and which 
have so materially influenced the character of the people. 

Story of Peter The Great. 

Peter I., called " the Great," began his reign with the firm resolve to 
make Russia one of the leading states of Europe. It was already a pow- 
erful country, but was cut off" from all relations with European states. 
He believed that to give his country the importance she was entitled to 
in the European system she must 'have a more extended sea-coast. In 
1696 he conquered and annexed to his dominions the territory of Azov, 
which had been held by the Turks. This gave him a footing on the 
Black Sea, and he resolved to create a fleet which should enable him to 
hold his conquest and make, him the superior* of Turkey. 

In order to do this, and. to learn the arts of civilization, which he meant 
to introduce among his people, Peter placed the government in the hands 
of an old noble, and traveled into foreign countries to study their insti 
tutions and learn the industrial arts by which they had gained their pro3 
perity. He visited Sweden and Brandenburg, and fixed his residence al 
Saardam, in Holland, where he worked as a common ship-carpenter, re- 
ceiving his wages every Saturday night, and living in all respects like 
the other workmen. 

Thus he learned by actual experience the art of ship-building, and ob- 
served with vigilant eyes the other sources of the prosperity of Holland, 
During this time he kept a close watch over the affairs of Russia, and 
directed the government of that country from his laborer's hut in Hol- 
land. In 1698 he visited England at the request of William III., by whom 
he was cordially received ; but instead of giving himself up to court festivi- 
ties, he passed his time in visiting the dock-yards and perfecting his knowl- 
edge of ship-building. He thus prepared himself to be the civilizer of 
his own country — a noble ambition which goes far to redeem his faults. 
Interesting- Characteristics. 

Wherever one goes in Holland, with an eye for something more human 
than " scenery," it is impossible not to witness evidence of the patience, the 
industry, and the consequent prosperity of the Netherlanders whom, from 
an old misuse of the word " Deutsch," that is, German or Teuton, we 
term " Dutch." Comfort, domesticity, and even wealth, are apparent on 
every side. The amazing cleanliness of the villages, and the amount of 
bullion in the shape of those curious corkscrew gold curls worn by the 
peasant women, with the lace veil behind, or the silver skull-caps, still in 
favor, strike every one as a favorable contrast with the tumble-down ap- 
pearance of so many German and Danish hamlets. 



QUAINT OLD HOLLAND. 



177 



There is even something pleasing in the peaceful green meadows dotted 
with sleek cows, in the long rows of willows lining the endless ramifica- 
tions of canals, in the brown-sailed boats which startle one in the midst 




INTERIOR OF A HOUSE IN HOLLAND. 

of a field, in the great steep-roofed farmhouses, and the abundant proofs 
on every side of the material welfare of this thrifty race. A farmer's 
house is usually filled with good furniture^ and the residences of tl>*; 
12 



178 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



citizens are furnished with a luxury which is almost unknown in 
Germany. 

If at all well-to-do the Hollander must have a house to himself; hence 
the number of front doors which a Dutch street presents, though "flats," 




WINTER SCENE IN HOLLAND 

which, to the delight of the cooks, have their kitchens to the front, are also 
very numerous. Yet the Dutchman is a great traveler within certain 
limits. Very few of the mercantile class have not been out of their own 
country. Most of them have visited or resided in the Dutch colonies of 



QUAINT OLD HOLLAND. 



179 





the Mala)- Archipelago, or, perhaps, have tried their fortune among the 
South African Boers, though there, unfortunately, a Hollander from Hol- 
land is not much more popular than an Englishman from England. A 
Dutchman, from the mere fact of his language being little understood by 
the rest of the world, makes a point of reading and speaking several 
others. Hence a Hollander, at all above the grade of a. mechanic or 
small tradesman, has a broad interest in the world's affairs which con- 
trasts agreeably with the narrow provincialism of the inland Teuton, and 
an easy politeness which reminds us of the Danes, though in the latter 
case, the causes which render the Dutchman a man of the world are lack- 
ing in a country where the inhabitants have few immediate concerns out- 
side the bounds of their 
own kingdom. Hol- 
land was for ages, as was 
England, the refuge of 
all those wjio were in 
distress, or who found 
themselves in trouble 
by reason of ideas too ^ 
advanced for their 
neighbors. Indeed, at 
a time when political 
and religious persecu 
tion was rampart i 
other places, hundred- 
of the best of Britons '^^^^^^^j^ 
made their home in the 
Netherlands, and by 
infecting all classes with 
not sink into license, they have amply repaid the hospitality they were 
afforded. Some of these were Puritans who afterwards settled New 
England. 

Once fairly in Holland, it is impossible not to be struck by many cus- 
toms which are peculiar to the Hollanders. The intense — the painful— 
cleanUness of the people must amaze everyone. The visitor hears long 
after he is in bed the sound of the scouring brush, and the chances are 
that he is roused out of his sleep in the morning by a stalwart 
housemaid squirting water against the walls and windows from a hand- 
engine on the pavement beneath. The very roads, paved as most of 
them are with small bricks known as " klinkers," are preternatu rally 



't^-^^ 



% 




CITADEL OF ANTWERP IN 1 585. 

a love of freed (Jin, and of liberty which does 



180 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



clean. The villages are spic and span, and on some of the dairy farms, 
like those at Broek, which have long been a show place for tourists, 
the barns are kept so scrupulously neat that they are often used as rural 
reception rooms. Whether, as grave men, and some whose statements 
must be received more cautiously, aver, the cows' tails in some parts of 
Holland are tied up in order to " preserve the unities," it is not neces- 
sary to believe, though there is nothing improbable in Dutch cleanliness 
being carried to this extent. 

The mercantile character of the people is evidenced by the beams pro- 
jecting from the gable ends of many houses, and used for hoisting goods 
into the " lofts," which are either let out or used by the tenants as ware- 
houses ; while the thrifty yet comfort-loving habits of the townsfolk are 
shown in the numerous announcements over cellar doors to the effect 

that there " water en vuur te koop," or, 
in plain English, to save an economical 
housewife keeping in her fire on a hot 
summer's day, she may there for a small 
payment obtain enough boiling water 
and lighted turf to prepare her tea or 
coffee. 

The heavy "bluff-bowed " Dutchman 
of the caricaturist, the man with wide 
breeches, and a build which requires 
all their amplitude, is now-a-days more 
frequently seen in pictures than in the 
streets of the Dutch towns. But it must 
be remembered that our satirists were 
more familiar with the maritime than with the inland Hollanders, and even 
yet many of the figures who live in these old-world pictures may be seen 
very freely represented among the fisher-folk on the islands of the Zuyder 
Zee, or in any of the ports. The town Dutchman is, however, as a rule, 
rather spare, though his " vrow " tends decidedly in the opposite direction. 
Plenty to eat and drink is the rule in Holland, and even among the 
poorer classes, though their fare may not be refined, an empty stomach 
is rarer than in any other country in Europe. To stay their robust appe- 
tites occupies a large share of the life of this practical people. The large 
crown decorated with bay-leaves and gilding, denoting that new herrings 
have arrived at the shop over which the sign is suspended, is to the 
Dutchman a far more important announcement than a similar piece of 
news would be to an American in a much lower social grade. 




A DUTCH TREE. 



QUAINT OLD HOLLAND. 



181 



A Dutch salt herring is a treat worthy of the esteem in which it is 
held, and no table, no matter how refined, does not display this dainty, 
some time or other. Smoked eels are another Dutch specialty. The 
open-air shell-fish barrow is not more common in the London streets 
than the stall in the Dutch towns for the sale of smoked eels, pickled 
cucumbers and hard-boiled eggs. Gin-drinking and smoking are equally 
common, yet, it is said, about equally harmless, for vdiat would be im- 
moderation M a k -is ))hlegmatic race, seems to have little effect on a peo- 



V'?^^ 

."^w,^ 

,^-^ 




DAIRY WOMAN GOING TO MARKET. 

pie who pass much of their time in the open air, and work hard in the 
intervals of their meals. 

Intemperance is, however, not frequent, except at the " kermis," or 
fairs, which play so large a part in Dutch life. At these festivals people 
assemble from far and near, and then, better than on any other occasion, 
the numerous curious costumes of the country people throughout the 
kingdom may be seen to perfection. The amusements of these popular 
gatherings, are shows, booths of all kinds, and especially groups of rustics, 



182 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



young and old, dancing backwards and forwards through the town, refresh 
ing themselves at intervals with "Hollands," and " broedertjes," cakes 
baked in booths in the street, and consumed as fast as they can be prepared. 
Among the " boers " or peasants of North Holland, when a young man 
is enamored of a girl, he repairs to the house of her parents a week or 
two before Easter or kermis time, at nine o'clock exactly, and generally 




AMSTERDAM IN 1 639. 

on a Sunday. If on entering he is offered a chair, he m_ay cc-7'.'':'.der him- 
self a welcome visitor, when the parents withdraw, in order tLcct he may 
press his suit. If not, the damsel addresses him in the foUowi'Ag lines:— 

" Ze je waar het vuur gaat 

Dan weet je waar de deur staat," 

the blunt meaning of which is that he had better make as straight for 
the door as the flames go up the chimney. 

In former times it was the custom for the bride's trousseau to contain 
her shroud and cap, and in some districts it was the practice for newly- 
married couples to provide themselves with several elm planks, from 



QUAINT OLD HOLLAND. 



183 



which, at the close of life, their coffins were made. These were con- 
sidered as indispensable portions of the household furniture. Among the 
primitive folk who make these curious additions to their ante-marital 
gear, the door of the house in which the bride lives is painted green, and 
when the wedding-day arrives flowers and evergreens are strewn in front 
of it as the young people, attended by their friends and relations, proceed 




IMMENSE QUAY IN AMSTERDAM. 

to the place of marriage. On their return, after singing lively songs, a 
large silver bowl, used only at birth and marriage festivities, filled with 
brandy and raisins, is produced and circulated among- the guests, after 
which a substantial meal is eaten, one of the invariable dishes being gray 
peas mixed with raisins, and in the singing and dancing which follows, 
one song, " Hoe zoet is't waar de vriendschap woont " — " How sweet it 
is where friendship dwells " — is never omitted. 



184 



PROM POLE TO POLE. 



Among other curious matrimonial regulations which at one time pre- 
vailed in Holland, no citizen was permitted to marry out of his native 
town, except on payment of a heavy fine, though it is perhaps needless 
adding, a great many ingenious couples managed to evade this sumptuary 
law. 

Amsterdam is the largest town in Holland, and is built in the shape of 
a crescent or horse-shoe. The visitor may discover this fact for himself 
by means of his guide-book ; or from the summit of the palace ; or in the 
course of a morning's perambulation through the town, when the infor- 
mation will certainly be volunteered by one or other of its intelligent in- 
habitants. It is situated at the influx of the Amstel into the Y, the latter 




SCEISE IN HOLLAND SHO\MNG THE WINDMILLS. 

being an arm of the Zuyder Zee, and forming the harbor. Hence the 
name Amsterdam — the dam of the Amstel or Amster. The locks are of 
enormous strength, to resist the inroads of the sea; and the immense 
precautions taken are not without reason, for the streets of Amsterdam 
are much below the sea level. The docks and quays are large and im- 
portant, and capable of accommodating a thousand vessels. 

Amsterdam was not always the place of importance it is now. In the 
twelfth century it consisted merely of a few fishermen's huts. About the 
year 1204 the dam was constructed which gives the name to the town. 
In the fourteenth century the town began to grow in importance, and in 
the sixteenth century it had risen to eminence. It has been fortunate 



QUAINT OLD HOLLAND. 185 

enough to retain its prosperity up to the present day. In commercial 
importance, in wealth, in its amount of trade, it holds a prominent posi- 
tion in Europe. Its industries are numerous — sugar and camphor refine- 
ries, manufactories of tobacco, large breweries and diamond mills. 

Amsterdam has its various quarters. Its fashionable and select quarter, 
which is naturally very exclusive, and turns up its nose at anything in the 
shape of a trade below a banker or a rich shipowner ; its commercial 
quarter, its manufacturing quarter, its shipping quarter, its Jews' quarter, 
highly distinguished for dirt and fried fish, its busy quarter, and its idle 
quarter. The system of drainage is most defective, and canals intersect 
the town perhaps more completely than they do any other town in 
Holland. All the quarters just enumerated possess the one common 
feature of canals ; and all the canals possess the one prevailing, abounding 
and most unmistakable characteristic of bad smells. It would be utterly 
impossible to describe the smells of Amsterdam. Those of Cologne have 
passed into a proverb ; those of Amsterdam ought- to possess a history 
of their oxyn. And yet they are considered healthy, for the Dutch 
doctors send patients here in order that they may inhale the odors. 
Dutch Paintings and Windmills. 
Amsterdam is rich in art treasures. The picture gallery is perhaps the 
best in Holland , but the rooms are so badly constructed that the beauty 
of the paintings is often lost. Rembrandt's masterpiece, " The Night 
Watch," is here, a marvellous production. The collection of etchings in 
the gallery is equal or superior to that in the British Museum. 

The endless windmills used for grinding corn, for manufacturing pur- 
poses, and for pumping superfluous water from the low lands into the 
canals, meet the eye in every direction. The chimes in the church towers 
fall on the ear every few minutes as they play a few bars of some operatic 
air in proclaiming the passing hours. The " gaper," or head, with the 
mouth wide open and the tongue protruding, over the druggists' shops, 
and a host of other features peculiar to Holland, might be noted. The 
enormous consumption of tobacco in the country cannot fail to strike 
every one, while the accomplishments of the Dutch in the fine arts are 
evinced by a visit to their picture exhibitions. 

Still, taking the Hollanders all in all, they constitute one of the most 
remarkable races in Europe. Their perseverance in reclaiming their 
country from the rivers which sap it, and from the sea which covered 
part of it, as well as the ingenuity which they display in keeping what 
they have got, are among the most warrantable reasons for that honest 
pride in a country which, as Detmar puts it, is " great in its smallness." 



CHAPTER XI. 
SCENES IN GERMANY AND THE NORTH. 

Where the Real Germans are Found — Mixtures of NationaHties — Complexion and 
Figure — Fondness for Music — Courtships and Engagements — Fidelity in Social 
Intercourse — Old City of Nuremburg — Picturesque View — Ancient Canal Recently 
Finished— Manufactures— Printing the Bible — Fine Architecture— Hans Sachs — 
Cobbler Poet — Longfellow's Tribute to the German Bard — Gloomy Old Dungeons 
— Terrible Tales^Famous Church and Tomb — Story of St. Sebald — A Well- 
ordered City — Polite People — Parks and Concerts — Residence of the Nobility — 
Bombardment of Brussels — Superb Buildings — City of Liege — Romantic Situation 
— Imposing Edifices — Zoological Garden— Copenhagen — Ancient Siege — Danish 
Fleet Defeated by Lord Nelson — Ravages by the Plague — Famous Museum — 
Astounding Relics — The Norwegians — Rough Exterior but Kind Heart — -The 
Danes — The Swedes — Icelanders — Love for a Frigid Island — 
Honest Old Fogies. 

HE modern inhabitants of Germany, the Germans, occupy 
a very large portion of Germany proper and of Eastern 
Prussia, as well as a broad band of country to the right 
of the Rhine. They are found also in different parts of 
Hungary, Poland, Russia, and North America. The 
Germans of the East and South having mixed much with 
the people of Southern Europe, do not represent exclu- 
sively the Teutonic type ; some of them are met with 
who have brown hair and black eyes. 
Germany does not admit of any very distinct definition. Throughout 
the whole of this country there exists no identity either of customs, lan- 
guage, or religion. Its provinces on the frontiers of Denmark are half 
Scandinavian ; those which are neighbors of Italy or France are half 
Latin ; the provinces which together represent the frontiers of Germany 
form a zone more mixed and various than is possessed by the frontiers of 
any other nationality. 

It is only toward the centre of the country that we find in all its purity 
the blonde Germanic type, the feudal organization and the numerous 
principalities which are its consequences. It is here that we find the 
conditions of climate which appear to produce this race with blue eyes, 
red and white complexion, tall figures, and full, powerful frames. 

The Germans possess an ear which appreciates sound in a wonderful 
186 




SCENES IN GERMANY AND THE NORTH. 187 

manner, and reduces with ease to melody the fleeting impressions of the 
soul. Germany has given the world fine music and fine musicians. 
Marriage Eus-ag-ements. 

Love, whose duty it is to bring together the sexes into a united ex- 
istence, is in Germany neither very positive nor very romantic ; it is 
dreamy in its character. It seeks its object in youth, and speedily finds 
it ; faithfulness is then observed until the time for marriage arrives. 

Early engagements being admitted by custom, betrothed couples are 
seen together, arm in arm, among the crowd at public or private festivals, 
or in lonely wood, or in twilight seclusion. Pleasure and pain they share 
with one another, happy in the conviction that their hearts beat in unison, 
and in the repetition, over and over again, of tender assurances. The 
calmness oi their temperament, and the certainty of belonging to one 
another some day, diminish the danger of these long interviews. 

When the wedding-day, looked forward to for so many years, arrives, 
the characters of man and woman have taken their respective stamp. 
The young jDeople know each other; they have no ground for suspect- 
ing deceit, for the singleness of their hearts admits of only one affection. 
Ancient City of Nuremberg. 

The second city of Bavaria is Nuremberg, with a population of 92,000, 
the " quaint old town of toil and traffic, quaint old town of art and song," 
that for 800 years and more has guarded, with its frowning ramparts, the 
valley of the Pegnitz. Since 1806 it has appertained to Bavaria; but 
ancientlr it was one of the " free cities " which, in spite of feudal barons, 
and ofteL under the very walls of the strongholds of tyranny, fostered a 
spirit of independence, and learned to defy both Pope and Emperor. 

The Konigs-Strasse River enters the city under one of the massive 
watch-towers. From the bridge there is an exceedingly picturesque 
view of the city. On both sides the river is overhung by houses with 
carved wooden balconies, brown with age. The Pegnitz itself is only a 
narrow sluggish .stream. It used to fill the moat in time of siege, but 
this service is no longer required of it, and its principal business now is 
to assist in supplying the Ludwig's-Canal that unites the Rhine and Dan 
ube by way of the Main. Charlemagne, with his far-seeing genius, 
planned this canal a thousand years ago, but it is only a little over thirty 
years since it was completed by the art-loving King Ludwig. The canal 
has been of great use in reviving the trade of Nuremberg. 

The Konigs-Strasse was once the centre of the commercial wealth and 
prosperity of Nuremberg. Immense warehouses of ponderous stone, 
with high-pitched roofs, hold the vast chambers that were once crowded 



188 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



with the treasures of the world. The velvet of Genoa, the glass of Venice, 
the lace of Flanders, the products of the Levant and of the distant Indies 
were gathered here ; and here came the merchants of all nations to buy 
from the clever Nurembergers their armor, and guns, and paper, and 




HOUSE OF THE CELEBRATED HANS SACHS. 

printing-presses, and clocks, and watches. The best translation of th? 
Bible before the time of Luther was printed and sold at Nuremberg. 

The lovers of Gothic domestic architecture find in the streets of Nu- 
remberg a rich treat. Picturesque dormer windows, pointed oriels and 
carved balconies are everywhere. Very wonderful are the roofs, singu- 



SCENES IN GERMANY AND THE NORTH. 189 

larly diverse in character and outline — some of antique simplicity, high- 
pitched piles of tile-work, with two or three rows of tiny windows ; others 
made elaborate with pinnacles, turrets, arcades, slender pillars, and arches. 
The grander mansions of the city are very picturesque — flamboyant 
tracery is lavished on the balconies and galleries ; on the panels are carv- 
ings in deep relief, and fretted arches and statues adorn the gables. 

The house occupied by Hans Sachs, who was born in 1494 and died in 
1576, is in the street that bears his name. There is a bronze statue of 
him on the Spitalplatz, erected in 1874. He wrote 6,000 poems, and his 
satirical verses were very popular. Longfellow sings of the house of 
Hans Sachs thus: — 

" Here Hans Sachs, the cobbler-poet, laureate of the gentle craft, 
Wisest of the Twelve Wise Masters, in huge folios sang and laughed. 

" But his house is now an ale-house, with a nicely sanded floor. 
And a garland in the window, and his face above the door, 

" Painted by some humble artist, as in Adam Puschman's song, 
As the ' old man gray and dove-like, with his great beard white and long,' 

" And at night the swart mechanic comes to drown his cark and care, 
Quaffing ale from pewter tankards in the master's antique chain 

"Vanished is the ancient splendor, and before my dreamy eye 
Waves these mingling shapes and figures, like a faded tapestry. 

"Not thy Councils, not thy Kaisers, win for thee the world's regard ; 
But thy painter, Albrecht Durer, and Hans Sachs, thy cobbler-bard." 

Dismal Dung-eons and Horrible Legends. 

The Rathhaus, or town hall, rebuilt in the Italian style in 1619, includes 
portions of an older edifice erected in 1322. The old Rathhaus was the 
heart of the trading republic of Nuremberg, whose pulsations, deep and 
powerful, once made themselves felt throughout the whole Germanic 
Empire. We cannot stay to trace the steps by which the Government of 
Nuremberg developed into a tyrannical oligarchy, working for selfish ends 
and destroying with heedless cruelty every one that opposed it. 

Beneath the Rathhaus are dungeons, with secret passages, leading to 
the town moat and to the private houses of the councillors. The dun- 
geons are deep and horrible ; in one chamber are rings and hooks and 
screws, and other remains of the frightful apparatus of torture. One of 
the passages that wind from these subterranean dens leads two miles 
beyond the town into the forest. 

Here is another "chamber of horrors," approached by a zig-zag pas- 
sage with five or six doors, evidently intended to shut in the cries of the 



190 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 



wretched victims. Here is the secret prison of the Senate, and the terri- 
ble Eiserne Jungfrau (iron virgin.) This is a hollow figure, seven feet 
high, dressed like a Nuremberg girl of the seventeenth century. The 
victim who had been remorselessly doomed to the virgin's embrace was 
pushed towards it, when, by a secret spring, the front — consisting of two 
folding-doors, studded inside with spikes and blades — opened, and clasped 
the wretched man or woman in a deadly embrace. Presently the lacer- 
ated body was released, only to fall into an abyss below, in which an 
arrangement of vertical spear points and knife-armed wheels completed 
the horrible work of secret destruction. 

The Church of St. Sebald is an ancient 
edifice, partly dating from the tenth and 
partly from the fourteenth century. In 
the centre of the choir stands the " tomb 
of sainted Sebald." Above the coffer 
containing the relics, delicate pillars up- 
hold three canopies of bronze. Reliefs, 
representing the charitable deeds and 
miracles of the saint, cover the coffer. 
About the canopy are figures of the twelve 
apostles and the fathers of the Church. 
Above, an infant Christ holds in His hand 
a globe. Some seventy tiny figures, 
realistic and imaginary, are worked into 
the fretted borders and interlacings of 
the design. At the east end, in a niche 
facing the altar, is an admirable statue of 
the artist, Peter Vischer, who executed 
MALE AND FEMALE COSTUMES. ^^-^ wonderful and elaborate piece of 

workmanship. It represents him in his mason's apron, and with a chisel 
in his hand. 

He was miserably paid for his work, and the inscription records that 
he did it " for the praise of God Almighty alone, and the honor of St. 
Sebald, Prince of Heaven, by the aid of pious persons, paid by their 
voluntary contributions." Twelve snails and four dolphins at the corners 
form the curiously fantastic base of the shrine, on which Peter Vischer 
and his five sons worked for fifteen years in the golden days of Nuremberg 
art. 

Legends affirm that Sebald was the son of a Danish king. He was 
educated at Paris, where he became deeply impressed with the uncertainty 




FROM POLE TO POLE. 



191 



of all worldly things. He married the lovely daughter of Dagobert, the 
king ; but left her, with her own consent, the day after their wedding, and 
withdrew to a wood, where he lived a hermit's life for fifteen years, and 
worked for his bread. One day he started off to Rome, obtained authority 
from the Pope to preach, wandered through the country, and at last 
settled down in a wood near Nuremberg, where he worked many mira- 
cles, some of which are recorded in the bronze carvings on his monument. 
Once at Christmas-time he came into a cartwright's house, and besought 
him to light a fire ; but wood was scarce, and the cartwright refused. 
'' Fetch me an icicle from the roof, and lay it on the hearth," he said to 

the wife. She did so, and the icicle burst 
into a blaze. " Now go buy me fish at 
the market," he said to the astonished 
cartwright. " I obey," he answered, 
" for all that the lord of Nuremberg has 
proclaimed that any one caught in the 
act of buying or selling fish this day shall 
have his eyes put out." So he went, and 
being taken, had his eyes put out by the 
tyrant. *' It is Heaven's visitation on 
you for your inhospitality," said Sebald 
when he returned; and then he healed 
him with a touch, and added, " Now go 
back to the market." He went accord- 
mgly; so the people saw and believed, 
and glorified God and St. Sebald. 

It is also recorded, among many other 
legends, that when Sebald's last hour 
STREET SCENE. drew nigh he commanded that, after his 

death, his body should be laid on a cart drawn by wild oxen, and 
buried on the spot where they should halt. They halted in front of a 
little wooden chapel, said to have been founded by St. Boniface. There 
St. Sebald was buried, and there, not long afterward, when the chapel 
was burnt down, the great church was erected, and dedicated to him. 

Grotesque as these old stories are — and they are all favorite subjects 
with the old German artists — they clearly show that the man in whose 
honor such a memorial as that glorious church was built, must surely 
have been a hero in his way. The parsonage of St. Sebald's Church con- 
tains the beautiful oriel window alluded to in Longfellow's well-known 
poem. 




SCENES IN GERMANY AND THE NORTH. 



192 



An experienced French traveler has declared that there is no place in 
which one can live better and cheaper than in Brussels. The clean- 
aess of the city is proverbial. It is said that every day the mistress of a 
house passes her fingers over the furniture, and if there be found a speck 
of dust the careless housemaid is dismissed. On Saturdays, walls, pass- 



fM 



;i|iii«iji^ifwpiff!^p|ftfli 




QUAINT OLD BAVARIAN BURGOMASTER. 

ages, and staircases are thoroughly cleansed, and the exterior oi the 
house is washed. The Frenchman has probably overstated the elaborate 
purifications which are supposed to take place, but it is certain that he 
has not entirely misrepresented the neatness and order of the streets and 
houses of the better class. 




VIEWS IN THE CITY OF BRUSSELS. 
p, Htdl of Justice; 2, Monument of Counts Egmont and Horn ; 3, Place de I'Eglise St. Catherine- 

4, The Stock Exchange. 

1:^, 193 



194 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

The people are very polite, and if you go into a shop to inquire thf 
price of an article in the window, or only to ask the way, you are gen- 
erally dismissed with thanks. The restaurants are good and many of 
the hotels enjoy a high reputation ; the shops rival those of Paris or 
Vienna, and are not quite so dear. There are good theatres, in which 
operas and French plays are performed by first-rate companies. During 
the summer a band plays every afternoon in the Park, and in winter con- 
certs are frequent. Altogether a visitor can find plenty to occupy his 
time, and must indeed be a misanthrope if he cannot enjoy himself in 

Brussels. 

Bombarded with Red-hot Bullets. 

The old city was surrounded by walls which sustained many a siege, 
the first on record having been an unsuccessful attempt to resist the 
attack of the first English Edward. It was bombarded by Marshal Vil- 
leroi in 1695, who made his attack in the hope of compelling William of 
Orange to raise the siege of Namur. Brussels suffered terribly. For 
thirty-six hours shells and red-hot bullets were rained upon the city, six 
convents and fourteen churches were burnt, and the whole of the lower 
town would have been destroyed had not the inhabitants stopped the fire 
by blowing up numerous buildings. In 1701 the French took the place. 
It was taken by Marlborough in 1 706, and again by the French, under 
Marshal Saxe, in 1746. Dumouriez, at the head of the French revolu- 
tionary army, occupied it in 1792, and it was the scene of several fierce 
encounters between the Dutch troops and the Belgians in the revolution 
of 1830. Few other towns can show such a frightful record, and Brus- 
sels has certainly earned the peace she now enjoys. 

Brussels contains many splendid buildings. The real architectural 
pre-eminence of Belgium consists in her civil or rather her municipal 
buildings, which surpass those of any other country. None of them are 
very old, which is easily accounted for. The rise of commercial enter- 
prise in Belgium, though early, compared with other European nations, 
was more recent than the age of military and ecclesiastical supremacy, 
and men were consequently obliged to erect castles to protect their 
property against robbers, and churches for their religious wants, before 
they could think of council halls or municipal edifices. 

Heroes and Martyrs. 

Here, in 1568, Counts Egmont and Horn were executed, together with 
twenty-three other nobles, by command of the Duke of Alva. A monu- 
ment, removed in recent times and re-erected in front of the Palace of the 
Duke of Arenberg, formerly the residence of Count Egmont, marked the 




SCENES IN THE MARKET-PLACE AT LIEGE. 



195 



196 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

site of the scaffold. Egmont was one of the bravest and most honorable 

men of his age. He refused to follow the example of William the Silent, 

who escaped while there was time. After an imprisonment at Ghent and 

Brussels, he died a martyr to the cause of liberty. His life and death 

furnished Goethe and Schiller with materials for two noble tragedies, 

which have done much to revive in modern Europe the fame of their 

subject. 

Picturesque City of Lieg^e. 

Liege was a place of some importance in the time of the Emperor 
Charlemagne, who conferred many privileges upon the inhabitants. 
During the Middle Ages it was the seat of an independent government, 
under its bishop, although the neighboring princes, especially the Kings 
of France and the Dukes of Burgundy, often interfered with the affairs 
of the city, and on several occasions took forcible possession of it. Read- 
ers of Sir Walter Scott's story, " Quentin Durward," will recall many 
events narrated in connection with Liege, especially the murder of the 
bishop and the death of William de la Marck, who was for many years 
the scourge of the district. 

The situation of LiSge is far more striking than that of any other 
large town in Belgium. The valley of the Meuse is surrounded by hills, 
on some of which the upper part of the city is built. Five bridges cross 
the river, and the views from some of them are very fine. Unfortunately 
for the appearance of the place, the tall chimneys of the manufactories 
produce a good deal of smoke, and the proximity of the coal mines gives 
an air of untidiness to the scenery, and produces the black mud of the 
street in rainy weather, and the equally disagreeable black dust when 
it is dry and windy. But as the manufactories and the coal mines are 
the source of the city's wealth and prosperity, the people tolerate any incon- 
venience arising from them with becoming philosophy. After all, Lifege 
is not a bad place to live in, and the pleasant neighborhood enables the 
citizens to escape without much difficulty from dirty streets into open 
fields or leafy woods. 

Imposing^ Old Buildings. 

St. Jacques' Church is a good specimen of Gothic arcnitecture. The 
ornamentation of the arches is exceedingly elaborate, and the vaulting is 
gorgeously colored. The choir has some well-executed carving in stone, 
and windows" filled with stained-glass of the sixteenth century. The 
north transept is considerably longer than the south, and in a compara- 
tively small building this is very observable. 

The most important and interesting building in Liege is the Palace of 



198 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

[ustice, almost in the centre of the city, erected in the early part of the 
sixteenth century by Cardinal de la Marck. The palace was seriously 
injured by fire in 1737, but the damaged part was rebuilt, and the whole 
has been carefully restored. The interior quadrangle is surrounded by 
an arcade, supported by sixty short columns, with very elaborate capi- 
tals, carved with grotesque figures and foliage. The groining is of blue 
limestone, the intervening spaces being filled with brick, and affording a 
pleasing appearance. 

The Meuse is navigable for many miles above Lifege, and also permits 
of communication with the sea for small vessels, which find a convenient 
harbor in the Bassin de Commerce, or are safely moored at the quays 
lining the river in its course through the city. The Park and a small 
zoological garden, abut on the river, which adds greatly to their attrac- 
tiveness. There is also a botanical garden, well laid out, and containing 
many fine plants. Several squares and Places contrast agreeably with 
the narrow streets, and afford space for the erection of statues. Nea' 
the Exchange there is a fountain of some artistic merit, representing the 
Three Graces. 

The Interesting- City of Copenhagen. 

Turning now to the third kingdom of the Scandinavian group, the lit- 
tle country of Denmark, which (as Sir John Lubbock remarks) occupies 
a far larger space in history than on the map of Europe, we find its capi- 
tal city, Copenhagen, situated on the island of Zealand oeside the chief 
entrance to the Baltic Sea. 

The city sustained a year's siege in 1535 and 1536, when Christian III. 
was fighting for the vacant throne of Denmark. Horrible scenes were 
then witnessed in Copenhagen ; the vilest food was eaten, numbers fell 
dead from starvation in the streets, and the soldiers, unrestrained, robbed 
and murdered with impunity. Another memorable siege took place in 
1658-60, when Charles Gustavus of Sweden unsuccessfully beleaguered 
it. On the first Good Friday in the present century occurred the memora- 
ble sea-fight in the roadstead near Copenhagen, when, as Campbell's war 
song has it — 

"To battle fierce came forth 
All the might of Denmark's crown." 

Denmark had allied herself with Sweden, Russia, and Prussia to oppose 
the " Right of Search " claimed by Great Britain. A fleet under Sir 
Hyde Parker, with Nelson as second in command, was sent to the Baltic, 
the passage of the Sound was forced, and in front of Copenhagen, in spite 
of shoals and sand-banks, batteries, and the Danish navy, and obstacles of 



FROM POLE TO POLE. 199 

every kind, the battle commenced. It was one of the most desperate en- 
gagements ever seen in Northern Europe ; Nelson himself declared that 
he had never been engaged in a more terrible struggle. By persisting in 
the fight in disobedience to superior orders he burnt or sank a large num- 
ber of the Danish vessels, and took possession of the remainder. 
Frightful Havoc by the English Fleet. 

Six years afterward the English Government professed to i.ave certain 
information that the Danish fleet, which had been renewed, was about tc 
be put at t) e disposal of Napoleon. The Danes were asked to hand over 
their fleet < d England, but refused. Accordingly a fleet under Gambler 
and an army under Lord Cathcart were sent to Copenhagen, and, as all 
attempts at negotiation proved fruitless, the city was assailed by land and 
sea. For three days and nights the bombardment was kept up, until the 
University buildings, the principal church, and numerous other edifices, 
including more than three hundred houses of the citizens, were destroyed, 
and hundreds of others more or less damaged. A little girl sitting at 
work at her bedroom window, and a mother nursing her baby at a street- 
door, were the first victims of the English fire. In repulsing the Danish 
troops, Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterward Duke of Wellington, distin 
guished himself 

At length the British army was admitted into the citadel ; the stores 
and ammunition were carried to the English ships, and the whole Dan- 
ish fleet was brought away in triumph. The destruction of Danish com- 
merce, the bankruptcy of the State, and almost complete ruin of the peo- 
ple, resulted from the wars in which Denmark was now compelled to take 
part; but the subsequent wise development of her resources resulted in an 
era of renewed prosperity, which the Schleswig-Holstein troubles only 
temporarily interrupted. 

Ravages of Plagues. 

Copenhagen has of late years increased, and is still increasing in 
wealth and population. Although of considerable antiquity it presents, 
for the most part, a modern appearance, inasmuch as sieges and bom- 
bardments and numerous extensive conflagrations, which have ravaged it 
from time to time, have played havoc with its old buildings. The city 
has to a large extent overcome the evil repute for unhealthiness which 
once attached to it. Its past record is certainly rather black; in 171 1 it 
lost 22,500 inhabitants by the plague, and in 1853 the cholera carried off 
4,700. But now, in spite of the low level of the ground, proper sanitar}' 
arrangements have been made, and an ample supply of good water is ob- 
tained from artesian wells. 



SCENES IN GERMANY AND THE NORTH. 



200 



Copenhagen is not an architecturally imposing city, but its main streets 
present a pleasing, animated appearance, and are lined with large, many- 




NATIVE OF KAMCHATKA. 



windowed houses. It contains four royal palaces, and numerous public 
buildings devoted to art, science, and philanthropy. It is well providei^ 



201 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

with avenues of trees, especially where, on the landward side, the ram- 
parts, which had a circuit of five miles, have been demolished to make 
way for new streets and squares and pleasantly-planted promenades. 
Toward the sea the citadel and forts still defend the approach to 
the city, and between the citadel and the sea runs a fine promenade and 
drive. 

A Noted Museum. 
The Museum of Northern Antiquities is a marvelous collection. No 
other country possesses so complete a series of objects illustrating the 
consecutive stages of development reached by its inhabitants in their pro- 
gress from a savage to a civilized condition. There are upwards of 40,000 
articles, and as the Government give full value for everything found, the 
collection is constantly increasing. The Stone, Bronze, Iron, Mediaeval, 
and Renaissance periods are separately and profusely illustrated. Here 
are oyster-shells and other objects from pre-historic dust-heaps, rough 
implements of stone found on the coast, and more polished stone tools 
and amber o>rnaments of a somewhat later date. 

Then come bronze tools, arms and war-trumpets, and knives. The 
Iron Age, besides iron implements, brings in a multiplicity of articles, 
silver and glass ware, woolen fabrics, boats, and alphabetical signs. The 
later Iron Age, the time of the Vikings, produces handsome heavy swords 
and battle-axes, horse-trappings, and other things too numerous to hint 
at. The noted Runic stones now appear. Here is a reliquary containing 
the arm of St. Olaf, King of Norway, who fell at Stiklestad in 1030, the 
said reliquary having been made, as the inscription testifies, for the Prin- 
cess Helen of Denmark, grandniece of Canute the Great. One of the 
special treasures of the collection is the celebrated Dagmar Cross found 
in the tomb of Queen Margareta Dagmar, the wife of Waldemar II., and 
the idol of Denmark. Old ballads tell how in 1205 the victorious Wal- 
demar wedded the fair daughter of the King of Bohemia, how by her 
grace and kindly deeds she won the hearts of her subjects, and how after 
six short years of happy wedded life she died. 

More than six centuries have passed since then, but less than a century 
ago farmers and peasants were still wont to cry " Dagmar, hail !" as they 
passed the good queen's grave. The cross is of enamel and of Byzantine 
workmanship. Amongst the presents to the Princess Alexandra on her 
marriage with the Prince of Wales, was an exact copy of this cross, given 
by King Frederick VII. This model is made to open, and contains a 
fragment of silk from the cushion found under the head of Canute in his 
tomb, and an alleged fragment of the true cross. 



202 FROM POLE TO POLE. 

As Mr. Du Chaillu justly remarks, the Norwegian has under a 
rough exterior a most kindly heart ; and, though outwardly cold, he is 
easily moved to the other extreme. Kind to his family and dependents, 
and merciful to his beast, he must be known to be appreciated. He is 
pious, sometimes even to bigotry, and in the character of both men and 
women there is a vein of quietness and pensiveness which fit in well the 
stern aspects of nature around them. Parents are affectionate to their 
children, children exceedingly respectful to their parents, and members of 
families well-disposed towards each other, though, unlike the Germans, 
the Norwegian is not apt to carry his heart on his sleeve. 

Quarrels are rare, and crime is less frequent than in any other part of 
Europe, where the distance from authority is as great. Wives and hus- 
bands usually agree well, though, unhappily, owing to the licentious 
facilities which the law affords for divorce — a mere desire to part being 
sufficient cause — separations are more frequent than in the rest of Protes- 
tant Europe. 

The farmers are very clever at all kinds of handicraft. When one wants 
to build a house, or make any addition to his farm, he goes to the forest 
and cuts the trees, and is his own carpenter. He may also be a tanner 
harness-maker, blacksmith, shoemaker and miller ; along the coast he can 
build boats and ships, and is an expert fisherman ; he is also a maker of 
musical instruments and furniture, a goldsmith and jeweller. As a hunter 
\a the mountains he pursues the bear, the wild reindeer, or the ptarmigan. 
Cliaracter of tlie Danes. 

Much the same characterization applies to the Danes, though the 
peasants are neither so independent — their freedom being of a later date 
than that of the Norwegians — nor quite so hospitable or so wealthy, 
though their lands are better and their markets more secure. The Danes 
are, as a rule, a quiet people, extremely touchy, like all their race, on ques- 
tions of patriotism, and apt to value their foreign visitor in a direct ratio 
to his abnegation of the critical faculty. The national songs are all very 
patriotic, and the novelists are seldom satirical on Denmark, though 
sometimes they venture to criticise the Danes as individuals. On the 
whole, however, the Danes — in spite of these foibles and a German ten- 
dency to be over-inquisitive — are the most agreeable of the Scandinavians 
among whom to live, though the Norwegians are the most picturesque 
and the most pleasant among whom to travel. 

Peculiarities of the Swedes. 

The Swedes are at first very attractive. They are exceedingly com- 
plaisant, and the " lower orders " are in some respects like the Celts, in 




TREMENDOUS ERUPTION OF THE GREAT GEYSER OF ICELAND. 

203 



204 FROM fOLE TO POLE. 

being all things to all men. But they do not improve on longer acquaint- 
ance, and though far from disagreeable, compared with the other branches 
of the family, they are apt to develop weaknesses which are not quite so 
attractive. If one could accept the Danes' estimate of their neighbor's 
character, the Swedes are a drunken, quarrelsome, and far from moral 
race. Happily, it is not necessary to adopt this method, though perhaps, 
as the laborers who come to Denmark in search of work are mostly from 
the poor provinces of Scania and Smaaland, they are not the best exam- 
ples of their nationality. It is, however, admitted that in cities the man- 
ners of the Swedes have been tinctured by the French fashions which 
came in with the present line of kings, and with the morals which are 
usually associated with France. On so delicate a theme one need not 
enlarge; but the facts are indisputible. In the country districts matters 
are not much becter, and in Denmark it is often noticed that when a 
young Dane marries a Swedish girl he is spoken of as not having done 
so well for his future happiness as he might. Yet the Swedish ladies are 
undeniably pleasant, and, when they do not smoke cigarettes and in 
other respects display their " emancipation," are as simple-mannered and 
modest as their kinswomen on the southern side of the Sound. 
Tlie Inhabitants of Iceland. 

The Icelanders, again, have characteristics somewhat different from 
those of their kinsfolk in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, which may be 
owing to their physical surroundings and the isolation which they have 
maintained for a thousand years. They are unquestionably endowed 
with an excellent opinion of themselves, and " their island grand." But, 
as usual, those who have ventured to pronounce a judgment on their 
mental and social traits differ widely, appreciations of national character 
depending, as Sir Richard Burton puts it, greatly upon " the casual cir- 
cumstances which encounter and environ the traveler." One set of 
visitors agree in describing them as gloomy, silent, ungenial, morose, 
stubborn, eternally suspicious, snappish, utterly deficient in enterprise, 
doing nothing but what necessity compels, not very hospitable, greedy 
of gain, unscrupulous, and uncleanly in their persons compared with the 
other Scandinavians. 

In contrast with this dark-colored picture, more kindly and perhaps not 
less truthful visitors enlarge upon their calm and dignified, their orderly 
and law-abiding character, and their undoubted intelligence, sharp-witted- 
ness, and that dry humor, which obtains for them in Denmark much the 
same reputation as originators of good sayings and humorous anecdotes 
as the Irish hold — or held — in English-speaking countries. 




205 



CHAPTER XII. 




WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY 

Vastness of Space — Curious Sun Spots — Amazing Distance and Bulk o5 the Sun — Brilliant 
Constellations — Distances of the Fixed Stars — Falling Fire-Balls — Mysterious Nebulae 
— Singular Freaks of Comets — The Immense Comet of 1843 — The 
Earth Passing Through the Tail of a Comet. 

WISE man only wonders once in his life, but that is 
always ; the fool never. The education of the wise 
man begins with wonder, and ends with devout 
admiration ; but the fool " doth not consider," and 
shuts his eyes to things around him. Strictly speak- 
ing, wonder is not a vulgar nor a foolish attribute. 
All wonder, said a dogmatic writer, is but the effect 
of novelty upon ignorance. Nay, we answer, you 
cannot be ignorant if you would feci the greatest 
effect of wonder. Thus it is that, Coleridge, a most 
learned man, declares, " in wonder all philosophy began, in wonder 
it ends, and admiration fills the interspace ; but if the first wonder 
is the offspring of ignorance, the last is the parent of adoration." 

Let us consider shortly one of the commonest wonders about us — 
space. Gaze up into the sky from off the page you are reading, and try 
to pierce as far as your eye can reach, and then as far as your mind 
can conceive. Our globe — the speck of dust on which we stand — is 
eight thousand miles in diameter, or twenty-four thousand miles in 
circumference; but with its sun, planets, and satellites, and those " less 
intelligible orbs called comets," it occupies space, which, calculated 
only by the uttermost bound of the orbit of Uranus — and we know 
that beyond Uranus there are worlds — is not less than three thousand 
six hundred millions of miles in diameter. The mind, it has v/ell been 
said, fails to comprehend so vast an area. Some faint idea of this, says 
an eloquent writer, can be obtained from the fact that, if the swiftest 
racehorse ever known had begun to traverse it at full speed at the time 
of the birth of Moses, or nearly four thousand years ago, he would as 
yet have accomplished only half his journey! 

The sun, which so many have worshiped, and which is, humanly 
speaking, the source of life to us all, is another perpetual wonder. Its 
circumference is about two million seven hundred and seventy thousand 
206 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 



207 



miles. Its distance from tlie earth is so great that a railway train 
moving at thirty -two miles per hour would take three millions of hours, 
or three hundred and forty-two years and three months, to travel from 
as to the sun, supposing that it could travel incessantly night and day 
during that time. A cannon ball, moving fifty times faster than such a 
train, would expend seven years in reaching it. To make a globe like 
the sun it would take one million four hundred thousand globes l-'ke the 
sarth rolled into one ! Or, to make these facts simpler, and yet ruore 
stupendous, the bulk of the sun is five hundred times greater thai? the 




THE SUN AND ITS WONDERFUL SPOTS. 

aggregate bulk of all the other bodies of the solar system of which 
night only reveals to us a small part — that which appears above our 
hemisphere, and above our particular stand-point. The centre of the 
sun is a dark mass covered with a garment of flame. But in this 
luminous matter there are vast rents. We talk of spots in the sun ; 
spots indeed ! the space occupied or laid bare by the principal spot is 
nine hundred and twenty-eight million square geographical miles. 
Arago, by a physical test, proved that this garment of flame, this 
^uminous matter, must be gaseous ; so that the sun floats in an ocean 
of flame, and this is so powerful that the strongest blast furnace yet 



208 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

ignited by man, at its highest power, is seven times weaker than the 
sun's heat at its surface. If the heat be electric, how great is the 
wonder ! being dispersed over space so great that the earth's surface, at 
a distance of ninety-five miUion miles, notwithstanding the alternation 
of night, receives in a year sufficient, if uniformly diffused, to liquefy a 
crust of ice one hundred feet in thickness. 

When we come to examine the sun by the aid of a telescope, we find 
that all parts of the surface do not give out light to the same extent, 
and that there are certain places on it darker, and some brighter, than 
the remainder of the disc. The former are called sunspots, the lattet 
faculae, which are always associated with spots. 

The first person who examined sunspots closely was the illustrious 
Galileo, who proceeded to determine from them the sun's velocity of 
rotation on his axis ; for he perceived that they moved across the sun's 
body. However, since his time, it has been showa that the spots have 
a motion of their own ; those at the sun's equator moving faster than 
those at his poles ; so that observations on the spots alone cannot tell 
us the rapidity of the revolution of the sun's entire mass. It has also 
been noticed that the number of these spots visible at one time does 
not remain the same from year to year, and, in fact, that about every 
ten years there is an epoch at which they are especially abundant. 
General Sabine has pointed out that these periods of frequency of sun- 
spots are coincident with the periods of greatest magnetic disturbance 
on our own globe. Accordingly, we see that there exists a distinct and 
close connection between variations in the appearance of the sun, and 
changes in the physical constitution of our earth. 

The interesting, question now arises: what are the ^unspots? and 
what is their cause ? The very careful investigations of science have 
thrown much light upon this interesting subject. One of the most 
remarkable features of the spots is, that their central portion is darker 
than the edge ; and accordingly, nearly a century ago, it was suggested 
that they were pits in an envelope which surrounded the sun. The 
results of later experiments seem to confirm this idea. They further 
go to show that the faculae, or bright patches, are really of the nature 
of luminous clouds, placed, relatively to the sun, above the level of the 
spots. These faculae are generally seen behind the spot, a position 
which they would necessarily assume if they were thrown up to a 
greater distance from his centre, and would move more slowly. The 
same observations have shown that spots are produced below the level 
of the sun's photosphere, while the faculae are suspended in that 
medium. If this be admitted, it seems to follow that the two phenom- 
ena are effects of a vertical circulation in the gaseous matte/- 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 



209 



surrounding the sun, the faculse being produced when a portion some- 
what denser than the medium in which it is suspended is raised into or 
above the photosphere, while spots are observed when such a mass is 
below the photospheric stratum. In fact, one of our most diligent sun 
observers has seen a faculje, apparently in the act of sinking, lose its 
brightness and gradually pass into a spot, its form remaining unchanged 
during the process. There is a shorter period of twenty months' 
duration observable in the recurrence of spots, and this coincides with 
the periods of recurrence of the same relative position of Venus as 
regards the sun and the earth. A similar relation between Jupite^ and 
the sun is also indicated. These discoveries are of the very greatest 




BERNIERES' IMMENSE BURNING-GLASS. 

interest, as they show us how intimately all the bodies of our solar 
system are related to each other, and how the slightest change in any 
one of them exerts a definite influence on the condition of the entire 
system, despite the great magnitude and the distance from each other 
3f the bodies which compose it. 

The burning-glass has long been used for the purpose of producing 
combustion. The rays of the sun are concentrated by means of a con- 
cave lens, and with a lens of sufficient power all combustible 
substances can be ignited. 

The curious in figures, and readers who have a higher aim, will be 
interested to know that a railway train at the average speed of thirty 
14 



210 



WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD, 



miles an hour, continuously maintained, would arrive at the moon in 
eleven months, but would not reach the sun in less than three hundred 
and fifty-two years. When arrived, it would be rather more than a 
year and a half in reaching the sun's centre ; three years and a quarter 
in passing through the sun, supposing it was tunnelled through, and 
ten years and one-eighth in going round it. How great these dimensions 
are, may be conceived from the statement, that tiie same train would 




TELESCOPIC VIEW OF THE MOON. 

attain the centre of the earth in five days and a half, pass through it 
in eleven days, and go round it in thirty-seven days. 

It seems strange to say that the geography of the moon, or at least 
of much of that portion of her surface which is presented to our view, 
is better known than that of many parts of our own earth ; and yet 
this is quite true. Our telescopes are of such power that if there were 
an object on the moon's surface as large as the Capitol at Washington, 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 211 

they would infallibly reveal it to us. Most elaborate maps of the moon 
have been made, and it has been satisfactorily proven that she herself 
is a solid body, probably composed of rocks much like those on our 
planet, but not provided either with water or with any trace of an 
atmosphere. It presents the appearance of a burnt globe or body of 
volcanic matter. 

Persons who have the opportunity of looking at the heavens through 
a telescope of the greatest power, should always ask to be shown e 
"globular cluster." There is no object in the sky which can compare 
with these systems in respect to the sublimity of the ideas which their 
contemplation evokes. There are about a dozen of these wonderful 
clusters of stars known to astronomers. One or two of these clusters 
can be faintly seen with the naked eye on a very dark night, as a 
minute spot of light on the black sky. The others are totally invisible 
without the aid of a telescope. 

These bodies, or rather congregations of bodies, are small in apparent 
size ; that is to say, they are not nearly so large as the apparent mag- 
nitude of the moon. They are round in outline, but they are composed 
of nothing else than myriads of stars clustered together. To give ai 
idea of the enormous multitude of minute stars which compose one ol 
these bodies, the following illustration suggested itself co an observe! 
who had examined several of these objects through one of the finest 
t(...iscopes in the world : take a piece of writing-paper cut into a circle 
about three inches in diameter, and shake a pepper-castor held over the 
centre of this piece of paper until the pepper is piled up in the middle 
so as to form a heap, gradually getting thinner at a distance from the 
centre, and finally ending with separate grains near the edge. Now, if 
we imagine each grain turned into a brilliant star, and the piece of 
white paper darkened into a black background, we get some idea of the 
marvelous way in which the stars are crowded together. 

Herschel has calculated that in some of these clusters there are more 
than two thousand stars visible ; and when it is remembered that each 
star is brilliant, like our sun, we see how dazzling must be the splendoi 
amid such a host of luminaries. Astronomers know but little more of 
the nature of these clusters than what has been here described. The 
forces which are in action there by which these suns are held in the 
positions which they appear to maintain, are unknown. Some of these 
clusters are less dense than others. 

But what may be the size of these constellated suns? We think 
ourselves the great ones of the universe, and that the heavens were 
hung with their starry lamps to give light to cur night. Have we any 
reason for our pride ? Certainly none, if we measure our importance 



212 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

by our size. When compared with that our own sun is mighty. Con- 
ceive his size. Suppose that the fiery globe were hollow, and that our 
earth were placed at the centre ; the moon could still hold on her way, 
though she is distent from us two hundred and forty thousand miles ; 
and yet there would be two hundred thousand miles beyond the moon 
ere the shell of the sun were reached. What a mighty mass ! and yet, 
though so great , our sun is a speck of dust compared with the very 
smallest of the numberless stars which twinkle so peacefully above us. 
The nearest star is nearly nineteen billion miles from us ; and Sir. J. 
Herschel calculal es that if a person stood upon that star and looked to 
wards our earth, not only would our mighty sun be utterly invisible, 
but if the sun we "e so enlarged as to fit the earth's orbit — that is, in- 
stead of being eight hundred thousand miles in diameter, he were more 
than one hundred and eighty millions of miles in diameter — even then 
that stupendous o^bit would be covered by a human hair held twenty- 
five feet from the '"dge, presuming the pupil of the eye were a point ! 

In other words, those stars which cluster to form these mysterious 
balls cannot be less, and they may be infinitely greater, than luminous 
orbs having diame'.ers of one hundred and eighty million of miles ; orbs 
compared with w'.ich our earth is as an orange to the dome of our 
national Capitol ; and yet there are thousands of such suns in one of 
these faintly lumii; lous patches, scarcely visible to the eye ! 

ASTOUNDING DISTANCES OF THE FIXED STARS. 

It requires a LVi ile consideration to estimate what the words nineteen 
billion miles re^.'ly mean. A billion contains one thousand millions, 
and we shall ew deavor to convey an idea of this amount by a simple 
illustration. Supposing our great forefather Adam had commenced to 
count as quickly as he could, and that when his life was ended his son 
commenced to count, taking up from the number at which Adam left 
off, and spent his whole life, day and night, counting as fast as he could, 
and supposing that at his death he enjoined on his heirs an eternity of 
counting, and that they had continued doing so up to the present mo- 
ment, their united efforts would not yet have reached the amount of 
nineteen b/ilions, the distance in miles from our globe of the nearest 
fixed star ! 

Such, then, is the distance of the nearest fixed star. We cannot 
grasp it in our imagination, nor are we more successful if we try to 
make a map. Knowing, however, the distance of the nearest star, what 
can we fiay of the distance of the farthest of those that are visible ? 
Here precise knowledge fails us. We can, indeed, grope after the 
\ruth, a/"d make guesses of greater or less probability. We believe that 
it *s, at ill events, hundreds of times as great as the shorter distance. 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 213 

Meteors are always associated with stars, and, in fact, are shooting 
stars in common pkraseology. On the seventh of October, 1868, one of 
the most remarkable fire-balls of which any record exists, was seen 
from three points so far distant from each other as Paris, Rouen, and 
London. From ten to fifteen minutes before twelve, the moon and the 
stars shining brightly, the atmosphere being frosty and cloudless, and 
scarcely a breath of air stirring, thousands of people between and 
around the points mentioned above, were startled by a sudden blaze of 
light in the heavens. The brightness resembled that of the magnesium 
light, and not only did the moon and stars grow dim in its lustre, but 
many of the eye-witnesses were so dazzled by the glare, that they 
could not observe the phenomenon with sufficient accuracy to give an 
intelligible account of it. Others, with more presence of mind, have 
recorded their observations. As the meteor floated slowly across the 
heavens (slowly when judged by the eye) in a direction from north to 
south, its appearance changed from that of an immense globe of white 
light to a comet-like form, the tail having various colors, changing 
from green through Several shades of red to blue or purple. It 
exploded with a sound resembling two gunshots, audible at Paris and 
Rouen. The probability is that it fell at La Varenne, St. Hilaire, near 
the Vincennes railway, and, if so, has been identified with a meteoric 
stone found there and measuring about thirty-nine inches in length,by 
seven or eight inches in thickness. 

History abounds in similar records, but it has not often been possible 
to combine the simultaneous observations made in distant places ; and 
it may be doubted if the elevation would always admit of a fire-ball 
being observed at points so distant from each other as in this instance. 
In 1768, a cloud was seen to explode over the village of Luce on the 
Maine, and the sound was heard ten miles distant. In 1798, a large 
fire-ball was seen near Benares, in India, and at several places, extend- 
ing to a distance of fifteen miles. In 1803, a fiery globe of extraor- 
dinary brilliance was seen over the town of L'Aigle, in Normandy, and 
at such an elevation that the inhabitants of two hamlets, a league 
distant from each other, saw it at the same time. It burst in a shower 
of meteoric stones. 

Fire-balls are most often seen a day or two before, or a day or two 
after, the recognized dates of those wonderful displays of asteroids 
which are now known to be a regularly recurring phenomenon at two 
periods of the year, one of these being in November. The probability 
is that all these appearances admit of one and the same explanation, 
namely, that they are masses of matter revolving round the sun, which 
come into contact with the earth, and take fire on entering its atmos- 




A MARVELOUS SHOWER OF METEORS. 
214 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 215 

phere. The smaller particles are consumed in passing through the 
atmosphere, and fall to the earth unperceived, as small dust ; while the 
larger reach the ground in great masses, and often penetrate to a 
considerable depth. 

An observer, gifted with the keenest sight, would be utterly unable 
to discover, without the aid of a telescope, the slightest trace of the 
wonderful phenomenon known as globes of gas in the sky. He mio-ht 
weary himself with staring even at the exact spot in the heavens where 
one of these objects is situated, but not the faintest glimmer would 
reward his efforts. He must call in the aid of that indispensable 
requisite to the astronomer— the telescope — to assist him. And even 
a telescope of such dimensions as is usually seen would be of no use ; 
it requires a telescope of very considerable power to show these objects 
at all. To show them well, tasks the utmost powers of a very first- 
rate instrument, such as is seldom met with. To reveal, however, tht, 
full beauty of their marvelous bodies, to exhibit them with brillianc}- 
and clearness sufficient to show the amount of detail with which they 
are figured in the ei^gravings, required the whole power of the great 
instrument of the Her.schels, or the colossal telescope of Lord Rosse. 

Let us suppose that an observer who enjoys the privilege of looking 
at the heavens through an instrument such as that last mentioned, 
directs the telescope on one of these bodies. At first, perhaps, he has 
a little difficulty in distinguishing it from a star, but when a higher 
magnifier is applied at the eye end of the telescope the difference is 
wonderful. He sees a very minute round ball, very bright, and glowing 
with light of a blue color. If he turn to another of these curious 
objects he will see a ball, slightly different perhaps in size, or brilliancy, 
or color, perhaps with very faint markings upon it, but he will find the 
general features in all these bodies to be the same. The observer can 
clearly see that this ball he is looking at is not made up of stars, and 
then the idea gradually bursts upon him that the object must be a 
globe of gas. 

That this is the real nature of these objects recent discoveries have 
placed beyond all doubt. As we recover our astonishment at this 
wonder, a crowd of questions occur to us. How far off is this globe 
we are gazing at ? All we know is, that its distance from the earth 
must be incalculably great. This question science cannot answer with 
accuracy. It is probably far more remote than most of the stars which 
we can see without a telescope, but even of this we cannot be quite 
sure. How large is it ? To this also we must plead our ignorance. 
Knowing, howev'er, that its distance is enormously great, we very 
naturally infer that it must be proportionately huge, since we are able to 



216 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD, 

see it at all. But supposing we take the vast circle which the earth 
describes around the sun, a circle, the diameter of which is nearly two 
hundred millions of miles, and' supposing that a globe conceived so 
large that it would only just pass through this circle, then we know for 
certain that the globe of nebulae must far exceed this imaginary globe 
in bulk. 

How is it that the gas is seen, and what renders it luminous ? Gases, 
as we know them on this earth, are transparent or invisible ; how is it, 
then, that this globe, if it be of gas, emits this lovely blue light ? To 
this we answer that the gas is heated so hot that it becomes luminous, 
just as iron when heated sufficiently gives out light. Difficult, indeed 
it is to form a notion of these wonderful bodies. They are utterly 
different from the sun, from the moon, from the planets which, rela 
tively speaking, are quite near to us. There is no terrestrial object to 

I which we could refer as an illustration. 
They are peculiar and unique bodies in 
the universe, and many have supposed 
I them to be the material out of which ne\A 
I worlds are evolved. 

There are in the heavens about twelve 
of these curious objects, varying some- 
what in size and also in shape and color, 
I but the general features in all are pretty 
much what we have briefly described- 
1 They are denominated, along with many 
CLUSTERS OF NEBULiE. other curious celestial bodies, by the word 
nebulzE ; but, to distinguish them from the great majority of the nebulae, 
we call them planetary nebulae. It must not, however, be inferred that 
they are connected with the planets ; the only reason why this name is 
given is that, seen through a telescope, both the planets and the globes 
of gas present a sharp, round outline. Our illustration will give the 
reader some idea of their shape and appearance. 

Among the chief marvels of astronomy must be mentioned comets. 
These wonderful appearances have frequently happened within historic 
periods, but not so often as to diminish the admiration and amazement 
with which each new arrival is greeted. A comet consists of a vast 
mass of gaseous matter surrounding a central portion which appears to 
be ol denser material, and is called the nucleus. This vast mass of 
luminous gas generally assumes the form of a tail ; but this is not al- 
ways nor even generally the case, as a comet sometimes is nearly round, 
and sometimes it does not even present the nucleus, and in that case it 
appears like a round ball of luminous gas. 




WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 217 

lliough comets large enough to be conspicuous to the naked eye are 
only seen at intervals of many years, it is well known to astronomers 
that hardly a year passes without one or more small comets being 
brought within reach of our telescopes. The earth and the planets are 
retained m their orbits by the attraction of the sun, and it is the same 
great power which draws the comets within reach of our eyes and tele- 
scopes. The planets move around the sun very nearly in circles ; many 
comets likewise revolve around the sun, but not in circles ; their paths 
are oval or elliptical, and the sun is not at the centre of the ellipse, but 
near to one end of it, in a point which is known as the focus of the 
ellipse. These ellipses are generally very long, so that the comet takes 
a great period of time to travel round in its path. The one which takes 
the shortest journey spends three years in performing it. There are 
some comets that, after passing near the sun in their elliptical orbit, re- 
treat to the other end of their ellipse, which is at such a prodigious dis- 
tance that thousands of years must elapse ere they revisit the neighbor- 
hood of the sun again. One of these was a great comet which appeared 
in the year 1 844. Its orbit was calculated, and it was found that after 
leaving the sun, it would retreat into space to a distance equal to four 
thousand times the distance of the earth from the sun, and that ere it 
returned again, it would have performed a stupendous journey, which 
would have taken it not less than a hundred thousand years to accom- 
plish. 

But there are many comets which astronomers can prove will never 
again return to the neighborhood of the sun. They come from the re- 
mote depths of space, at a stupendous distance from the sun and all his 
train of planets ; on beginning to feel the effect of his attraction they 
move towards our system, and at length they come sufficiently near to 
it to be visible through a telescope, and as surely as they do so, so 
surely are they detected by the keen eyes of some of the numerous 
astronomers who are always on the watch for these bodies. They 
come on nearer to the sun, till their pace exceeds that of the earth 
itself, but they do not plunge headlong into him. Notwithstanding 
the vast powers of his attraction, they just whirl round the mighty lu 
minary. Exposed to the fearful heat of his beams, the tail is developed 
to an enormous length. By some unknown law, which Professor 
Tyndall has recently sought to explain in a very ingenious manner, the 
tail stands out away from the sun as the comet whirls around it; then, 
after having passed the sun, the comet retreats again. It gradually 
becomes fainter, gradually is lost sight of by our telescopes, gradually 
plunges again into the depths of space, never again to revisit our sun, 
aever again to be beheld by human eye. Such is the history of many 



218 



WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 



of the great comets which at different times have struck terror into the 
inhabitants of the earth — they have retreated never more to return. 

The great comet of 1843 was one of the most remarkable ever ob- 
served. The nucleus of this was so brilhant that it could be seen with 
the greatest ease in full daylight. This comet is remarkable for coming 
nearer to the sun than any other of these bodies whose paths have 




THE GREAT COMET OF 1 843. 

been determined with accuracy. It was found to approach the sun to 
within a distance of thirty-three thousand miles. It is easy to calcu- 
late, though not easy to imagine, what must be the heat in such » 
position. It would doubtless be many hundred times greater than the 
temperature of molten iron. 

Speculations have often been indulged in as to the possibility of s 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 210 

collision between the earth and a comet. In June, 1861, M. Liais the 
celebrated astronomer at Rio Janeiro, from obserxations which he had 
made of the great comet of that year, which had not as yet become 
visible in Europe, became convinced there was a great likelihood that 
the earth would come in contact with one of the tails of the comet; 
and M, Liais proved beyond question, that on the nineteenth of June, 
1861, the earth really did pass through one of the comet's tails, the 
moment of contact being twelve minutes past six* in the morning; 
and the earth must have been wholly immersed in the tail for about 
four hours. Yet it had no perceptible influence upon the weather — a 
very remarkable fact, adding reason to suppose that cometary matter 
is some millions of times rarer than our atmosphere. This phenome- 
non had never before occurred, according to the dictum of Arago, the 
astronomer. Lord Wrottesley, in i860, remarked that when the comet 
of Encke returned, its motion was continually accelerated, and it was 
consequently drawn nearer to the Gun. The final result will be, that 
after the lapse of ages, this comet will fall into the sun ; this body, a 
mere hazy cloud, continually flickering, as it were, like a celestial moth 
round the great luminary, is at some distant period destined to be 
mercilessly consumed. Other astronomers differ from this opinion, 
and consider that there is no substantial reason to suppose the sun will 
ever become a great consumer of comets, although it is very difficult 
to explain why a comet drawn with amazing velocity toward the sun, 
will, upon coming near and at just the point where the attraction is the 
greatest, suddenly sail round the great luminary and dart away in its 
strange flight. 

THE SUBSTANCES COMPOSING THE SUN. 

Our knowledge of the physical constitution of the sun has been 
greatly increased within the last few years by the wonderful revelations 
of that most powerful engine of physical research, the spectroscope. 
A careful analysis of the solar spectrum formed by a prism, and a com- 
parison of it with the spectra of terrestrial elements in a state of 
incandescence, reveal to us the presence in the solar atmosphere of 
many familiar substances, such as hydrogen, and the vapors of iron, 
sodium and other metals. Line for line the solar spectrum agrees with 
the known peculiarities of elements which form constituents of our own 
globe, and we have the interesting fact established that the gorgeous 
parent of our system is, so to speak, bone of our bone and flesh of our 
flesh. The sam.e powerful analysis, when extended to the stars, dis- 
closes similar results ; and we are led to the inference that our own 
tiny globe, though such an insignificant fraction of the uni\ersc, con- 
tains, represented within its narrow bounds, all the materials of which 



220 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

that gorgeous system is built up. Unfortunately the spectroscope can 
tell us nothing of our own satellite, though it is so much the nearest 
and most distinctly visible of all the orbs of heaven. Moonlight is 
simply reflected sunlight ; and hence its spectrum is, as we should 
expect, but a faint reproduction of the more brilliant solar one. 

The spectroscope has lately been applied successfully to those 
singularly beautiful phenomena which accompany a total solar eclipse, 
and which are generally known as the rose-colored protuberances. As 
soon as the sun's light is wholly cut off by the moon, cloud-like 
prominences of a bright roseate hue are seen projecting from its sur- 
face beyond the moon's edge ; and occasionally traces of a layer of 
the same material are seen at their bases, which lead us to suppose 
that the whole sun is encompassed by a ring of this matter. Whether 
it is a distinct solar envelope, or only a part of the photosphere, is at 
present uncertain ; but pending the settlement of the doubt, it has 
received the specific name of the chromosphere. The spectroscope shows 
it to consist of incandescent gas, of which hydrogen is the chief con- 
stituent ; and the rose-colored protuberances are huge masses of this 
flaming substance, which have been hurled up into the solar atmosphere 
to a height, sometimes, of fifty or a hundred thousand miles above 
their ordinary bed. 

THE GORGEOUS SOLAR HALO. 

Another interesting phenomenon which appears at the time of a total 
eclipse is the solar corona — a great halo of light surrounding the dark- 
ened sun and stretching far out into space. This halo was at first sup- 
posed, naturally enough, to be the solar atmosphere, lighted up by the 
sun's rays streaming through it and imparting to it a portion of his own 
effulgence. But here again the spectroscope comes to our aid. It tells 
us the degree of pressure to which the incandescent hydrogen compos- 
ing the rose-colored protuberances is subjected, and shows the impossi- 
bility of their being burdened by such an enormous atmosphere as the 
whole corona would represent. The progress of modern science has 
left little doubt as to its real nature. We have learned that the whole 
solar system is traversed by numberless tiny planetoids, some moving 
singly, others in small clusters and others in enormous groups contain- 
ing countless myriads of these little units. These aerolites pursue their 
proper paths about the sun as truly as the largest bodies of the system, 
save when they get entangled in the atmosphere of our own or any of 
the other planets. When this is the case, the sudden checking of their 
enormous velocities by the resistance of the air reduces them instantly 
to a state of incandescence, and we see them flashing across our firma- 
ment as shooting stars, the aext moment to be dissipated into va(*or. 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 221 

The periodical meteoric showers of August and November are caused 
by our orbit carrying us, at those periods of the year, right through 
great clusters of these aerolites. It has been estimated that not less 
than a hundred thousand million of them are annually caught by our 
atmosphere ; and when we consider the comparative smallness of the 
ring which we traverse, we can see that the absolute number of the 
meteorolites belonging to our system must be something incomparably 
exceeding the highest flights of human calculation. In the immediate 
neighborhood of the sun, where his attraction exercises the most direct 
and potent influence, they will be found in special abundance ; and it is 
to the fact of their existence that we must look for an explanation of 
the corona, and perhaps of yet greater and more interesting mysteries 
of our system. The corona is simply the sunlight reflected from their 
surfaces, as it is from the disks of the moon and planets. For a vast 
distance round the sun the whole firmament is powdered with them as 
thick as hailstones, and the reflection from them produces a continuous 
luminous glow, lost indeed in the overpowering brightness of ordinary 
sunlight, but shining out with exquisite lustre when his direct beam^ 
are cut off from us. 

THE GLORY OF THE STARS. 

The great distance of the stars from us prevents us from knowing 
almost an3^thing w^hatever about their condition, except what we can 
infer from analogy. They hold the same place in creation that our own 
sun does. They are not satellites of any other body, but primary orbs, 
independent sources of light and heat, and probably the centres of 
systems not less varied and gorgeous than our own. Hence we may 
argue with a high degree of probability that those facts which have 
been ascertained concerning the general nature of the sun, hold equally 
true of the stars. And as for their individual peculiarities, we are for 
the most part equally in the dark about them also, and that for the 
same reason. All the stars appear to us as mere luminous specks 
without any perceptible magnitude. And although " one star diftereth 
from another star in glory," though even the naked eye can detect 
many degrees of brilliancy among them, yet all we can infer from this 
is that the more brilliant ones are probably much nearer to us than the 
others. But there are stars which form marked exceptions to the 
general rule, and stand out prominently from the rest. 

The existence of binary stars was discovered by Sir William Herschel 
toward the close of last century. It had long been noticed by astronomers 
as a remarkable coincidence that in several instances a pair of bright 
stars were found in close proximity to each other, much closer than we 
should have expected supposing the stars to have been scattered up 



222 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

and down at random over the whole face of the heavens. Still it was 
never thought that this was anything more than a coincidence ; it was 
supposed that the stars had no connection with each other, but wert 
altogether separate bodies, which merely happened to be situated in 
one straight line with ourselves. But Herschel having, for some 
scientific purposes which it would take too long to explain, determined 
to make a series of minute and careful observations upon these double 
stars, soon found to his surprise that they were rapidly shifting their 
positions relatively to each other; and, in short, he was erelong led to 
the conclusion that the two stars were in reality situated close together, 
and revolving in orbits round one another. Many pairs of stars of this 
kind were observed and registered, while in some cases the combinations 
were found to consist of three stars, and even four, instead of two. 

IMMENSE SUNS WITH RAINBOW COLORS. 

But one of the most remarkable features about these multiple stars 
is that they are very frequently of different colors. In the case of the 
double stars the two colors are usually complementary ; colors, that is, 
which when mixed together, in proper proportions, produce white. 
This one will be green and the other red, or one orange and the other 
blue, or one violet and the other yellow. Similarly in the triple stars 
we may have a blue, a red and a yellow, or a green, an orange and a 
violet. In a quadruple star we may have blue, green, orange and red ; 
and so on, in endless combinations. If there be any planets in attend- 
ance upon these multiple suns, as in all probability there will be, the 
celestial phenomena at those planets will be of the most extraordinary 
character indeed, and everything that depends on these phenomena — 
their times and their seasons, their days and their years — will be 
involved in the most intricate complications. 

If, indeed, any of them happened to be situated in very close prox- 
imity to one of the primaries, things with it would not be so confused. 
It would always revolve round the same sun, though in a very irregular 
and perturbed orbit ; and hence its days and its years would follow each 
other pretty much in the natural and regular order. But its seasons 
will vary much both in length and temperature, and its nights, though 
much darker than its days, will yet differ from them far less than is the 
case with us. For when the primary orb sinks beneath the horizon, the 
secondary ones will shine out in full splendor, much smaller and more 
distant than the primary, but yet far exceeding in brilliancy the borrowed 
light of the brightest of full moons. But most of their planets, not 
nestled close enough beside any one of their suns, will come pretty 
equally under the influence of all. Take, for instance, the case of a 
planet in a quadruple system at a time when it happens to be about 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 223 

equally distant from all its four suns. A green and a red sun are above 
the horizon, and when we look directly at either, its color is clear, 
brilliant and well-defined. But their rays meet and mingle and unite 
into a dazzling snowy white, which imparts to the whole landscape the 
pure radiant look which seems to fill the firmament on a sunny day 
when the ground is covered with snow. A light cloud-wreath steals 
over the green sun, and a faint rosy blush overspreads the face of the 
sky. The cloud thickens, and the rosy hue deepens into a mellow 
crimson. 

Then the green sun sets and a blue one rises, changing the red light 
of the sky into a rich purple, veined here and there with pale amethyst, 
as a few rays from the green sun struggle through the clouds just as it 
sinks beneath the horizon. The purple changes into a deep gold as 
the blue sun is succeeded by an orange one, and the gold pales down 
as the red sun sinks to his rest in turn. The orange is left alone, and 
when it, too, sets, night comes on apace. And now the moons rise 
and shed their radiance on the scene. But how differently do they 
show from the pale uniform light that beams from our own plain satel- 
lite ! Every color of the rainbow glows from their faces; in belts, in 
spots, in lunes, their checkered disks reflect every shade of hue that 
the artist's palette can produce. 

The parts illumined by one sun alone reflect, more faintly than the 
rest, the colors of their respective orbs ; those which come within the 
light of two or three of them will shine more brightly and with gayer 
combinations of colors ; while in the parts on which all the four suns 
shine at once we find again the snowy white, so bright as to sparkle 
almost with the light of day. But where there are four great lights to 
rule the day, night will be of unfrequent occurrence and of short dura- 
tion ; and soon the four suns, their nocturnal course ended, begin at 
once to draw nigh to their rising. Pale, slender threads of red, green, 
blue, and orange steal out from the darkness in four quarters of the 
horizon ; and these widen and lengthen till they mingle together at 
their extremities in softly shading hues of white, indigo, and gold. 
Brighter and broader they grow, and the gorgeous variegated belt 
spreads rapidly from horizon to zenith, till at last the suns have fairly 
risen, and their many-colored rays combine again into the dazzlins 
ivhite of the perfect day. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY (CONTINUED). 

Thomas Moore's Tribute to the "Angel of Light" — The Sun a Father of an Or4erlj 
Family^ — A Dazzling King in the Firmament — Drawing Worlds through Deserts of 
Space— Will the Sun Last Forever? — Wonderful Sun-Spots — Caverns in the Sun that 
would Swallow Ten Worlds like Ours — Terrible Convulsions— The Sun's Rotation— ■ 
Mercury and Venus — Marvelous Transit of Venus — Solar Heat — The Sunlight a Brilliant 
Painter — Chemistry of Solar Rays — Microscopic Photography — Instantaneous Pictures — 
Eclipses — The Splendid Corona — Startling Eruptions on the Sun's Surface — Lord Byron's 

Apostrophe to the Sun — Mercury — Venus — Galileo's Riddle — Mars 

— Jupiter — Saturn — Uranus — Neptune . 

ND see — the Sun himself! — on wings 
Of glory, up the East he springs. 
Angel of light ! who from the time 
Those heavens began their march sublime, 
Has first of all the starry choirs 
Trod in his Maker's steps of fire ! 

Blest power of sunshine ! genial day. 
What balm, what life is in thy ray ! 
To feel thee is such real bliss, 
That had the world no joy but this, 
To sit in sunshine calm and sweet — 
It were a world too exquisite 
For man to leave it for the gloom — 
The deep, cold shadow of the tomb ! 

Thomas Moore. 

The resplendent body which shines over our heads occupies the cen- 
tre of the group of worlds to which the earth belongs. Our planetary 
system owes its existence and life to the sun. It is truly the heart of 
this gigantic organism, as expressed in olden times by a happy meta- 
phor of Theon of Smyrna, and its reviving pulsations sustain the long 
existence of the planets. Placed in the midst of a family as father, over 
which it has ceaselessly watched from unknown ages when the worlds- 
left their cradles, it governs and directs, both in the maintenance of 
its interior economy, and in the individual part which it fills in the 
sidereal creation. Under the imoulses of the forces which emanate 
from it or of which it is the pivot, the earth and our companions, the 
planets, gravitate round it, imbibing in their eternal courses, the ele- 
ments of light, heat and magnetism which constantly renew the activity 
224 




WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 225 

of their life. This magnificent body is, at the same time, their support 
in space, the fire which warms them, the lamp which lights them, and 
the fertile source which pours out on them the treasures of existence. 
It is he who permits the earth to float in the heavens, held by the in- 
visible network of the planetary attractions ; it is he who guides it in 
its way and distributes to it years, seasons, and days. It is he who pre- 
pares a new clothing for the sphere yet frozen in the nakedness of win- 
ter, and who invests it with a luxuriant dress when it inclines its pole 
covered with snows towards him ; it is he who gilds the harvests in 
the plains and ripens the heavy grape on the warm hills. It is this 
glorious body which, in the morning, spreads the splendor of the day 
over the transparent atmosphere, or rises from the sleeping ocean, 
which he will transform into charitable dew for the thirsty plains ; it is 
he who forms the winds in the air ; the twilight breeze on the shore ; the 
ocean currents which traverse the waters. It is, again, he who sustains 
the vital principles of the air we breathe, the circulation of life in the 
organic kingdoms, in a word, the regular stability of the world. Lastly, 
it is to him we owe our intellectual life and the collective life of entire 
humanity, the perpetual food of our industry, and more than this, the 
activity of the brain which allows us to clothe our thoughts with a 
form, and mutually transmit them in the brilliant intercourse of intelli- 
gence. 

A PRINCELY RULER IN THE SKY. 

What imagination is powerful enough to comprehend the extent of 
the sun's action on all the bodies subjected to its influences? More 
than a million times larger than the earth, and five hundred times 
larger than all the planets together, he represents the whole planetary 
system; and this system, which is a mere nothing compared with the 
stars, he draws through the deserts of space; and these worlds follow 
him at his will like dark passengers carried away by a splendid vessel 
on an endless sea. He makes them revolve round him, that they 
themselves may imbibe in their course the support of their existence ; 
he governs them with his royal power and regulates their formidable 
movements. 

But what is the nature of this powerful body whose action is so 
universal — what fire burns in this vast censer — what are the elements 
which constitute this splendid globe? Does it contain in itself the 
conditions of an infinite duration, or is the earth rather destined one 
day to see this lamp of life extinguished and revolving henceforth in 
the darkness of an eternal winter? These questions belong to a lawful 
curiosity, and we wish that a satisfactory answer could be made to 
them. When we wish to appreciate the nature and greatness of a high 
15 



226 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

person, we do not generally seek to prove his defects, to study the 
blemishes in his character; this would be a singular way of judging 
his value; and even were tliis so we owe it to human imperfection, 
from which the greatest of us are not free. But if referred to a being 
whose distinctive character lay precisely in being not only of a mag- 
nificent purity, but also the source of all light and purity, people would 
not seek for spots to understand him. 

Indeed, the people were astonished 260 years ago, when King Sun, 
the god of day, was accused by the telescope of being constantly cov- 
ered with spots, and would it not be still more astonished if it dis- 
covered that these spots were precisely the only means that the sun 
gives us to penetrate his nature? They almost believed on this occa- 
sion, that pride is in the inverse ratio of worth. The official savants 
of that time, the theologians and disciples of the school of Aristotle, 
were not willing to believe anything. The provincial father of the 
order of the Jesuits at Ingolstadt, replied to Scheiner, one of the first 
after Galileo who had seen the sun and its spots through a glass, that 
Aristotle had proved that, in general, all stars were incf /ruptible, and 
that the sun in particular was the purest light possible, consequently 
that the pretended spots of the sun were in the glasses of his telescopes 
or in his eyes. When Galileo made the same observation, the Peripa- 
tetics exerted themselves to prove to him, books in hand, that the 
purity of the sun was invincible, and that he had seen badly. And, 
indeed, who would have suspected such a thing? Spots on the sun ! 
This must be an error, and an evident delusion. In times of grave 
events, the sun's disk lost, it is true, its light, as at the death of Julius 
Csesar, and appeared to turn to blood. 

It was Virgil himself who related the fact, and the author of the 
" Metamorphoses" confirms it in a touching testimony: 

Darkness, we see, emerges into light, 

And shining suns descend to sable night ; 

E'en heaven itself receives another dye, 

When wearied animals in slumber lie 

Of midnight ease : another, when the gray 

Of morn preludes the splendor of the day. 

The disk of Phoebus, when he climbs on high, 

Appears at first but as a bloodshot eye; 

And when his chariot downward drives to bed, 

His ball is with the same suffusion red. 

But these were exceptions, and it would have been great rashness to 
conclude that the orb of day was subject to corruption. However, the 
sun has spots, and the most curious fact is that these spots have 
enabled us to know its nature and physical constitution, whilst without 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 



227 



them we should not have been able to acquire the slightest notion of 
the disposition of this great body. 

Let us see then in what the spots of the sun consist. Generally, this 
is the aspect which they present to us in the field of the telescopy: 




\ TYPICAL SUN-SPOT. 

Two very distinct portions are noticed ; at the centre a well-defined 
black region. Around it a region not so black or grayish compared 
with the surface of the sun which surrounds it. The central part has 
received the name of " umbra ": sometimes at the centre of this part i*' 



228 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

noticed a more intense dark spot, which is called "the nucleus." The 
exterior region of the spot has received the name of "penumbra." 
When it is stated that the centre of the spot is black, this expression 
must be understood as relative to the general surface of the sun; for 
this centre, however dark it may appear by contrast, has been found 
of a light equal to two thousand times that of the full moon. 

We may be led to the belief that these spots, generally invisible to 
the naked eye, are insignificant movements carried on on the sun's sur- 
face, and of small extent. It is not so. They are daily and very im- 
portant phenomena. Some of them have been known to measure 
80,000 miles, that is to say, they are ten times larger than the earth. 
Our globe falling into most of them would be lost as in a well. Besides 
being of this size, they are also the seat of various actions and pro- 
digious phenomena. They are not formed suddenly as a whole, but 
increase to the limit they attain, and afterwards diminish. Some only 
last a few weeks, others months. Now the movements with which 
they are animated, either for their increase or diminution, or in their 
internal action, are sometimes of unheard-of rapidity. Lately, astrono- 
mers have followed a dazzling meteor passing through a group of spots 
with a velocity of eight thousand miles per minute. In other parts, they 
have watched circular whirlwinds, dragging into their commotion large 
spots like the earth, and swallowing them up in abysses with fearful 
velocity. Sometimes are seen the crests of stormy waves extending 
over parts of the penumbra, and rising on the white surface of the sun 
as a still whiter and brighter substance, doubtless projected in their 
ebullition by interior forces. There have, besides, been seen immense 
bridges of fiery substances cast suddenly over a black spot, crossing it 
from one end to the other, like an arch of luminous striae, which some- 
times is dissipated, and falls down into the abysses of lower whirlpools, 

TERRIBLE COMMOTIONS IN THE SUN. 

This body, which each day pours out over our heads such a pure 
and calm light, is the seat of powerful actions, and prodigious move- 
ments, of which our tempests, hurricanes and waterspouts give us but 
a slight idea ; for these gigantic disturbances are not performed, as 
here, in an atmosphere of a few miles thickness and over a few miles 
area, but in proportions as vast as its volume. One of the first results 
of the observation of solar spots was to discover that the sun turns on 
its axis in about twenty five of our days. 

Indeed, if we watch for several consecutive days any of the spots 
visible on the solar surface, or a group of spots, or even the whole sun, 
we shall not be long in remarking that the spots are all animated with 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 229 

the same nxiovement from one edge to the other of the solar disk. If, 
for instcince, we begin to follow a spot from its appearance at the eastern 
edge, we observe that it advances slowly towards the middle of the 
body, which it reaches about seven days after its appearance ; then it 
passes it, and continues its course towards the west, and seven days 
afterward it reaches the edge and disappears. 

After a period of fourteen days, employed in traveling over the oppo- 
site hemisphere, it reappears at the same place, and follows the path 
previously pointed out. These observations evidently show that the 
sun turns on an axis. This rotation of the sun shows its spots in the 
following manner : If the period of the reappearance of the spots is 
from twenty-five to twenty-eight days, this does not refute the num- 
ber of twenty-five days before mentioned. The difference proceeds 
from the earth not remaining immovable in space, but turning round 
the sun. Now, in its translatory movement round the sun, the earth 
advancing in the direction of its rotation, sees the spots two days and a 
half after they have disappeared at the point where the earth was at the 
iommencement of the observation. 

AN ENDLESS DAY. 

This rotary movement takes place from west to east, like that of the 
*arth and all planets of the system. Thus, by telescopic examination, 
this body declared fixed and incorruptible in antiquity, is stripped of 
its two distinctive qualities. The diurnal rotation of the sun is twenty- 
five times longer than that of the earth ; but it differs essentially in its 
immediate consequences, because it does not produce on the surface 
the alternate day and night, which we derive from this movement. It 
cannot, then, be stated that this is the length of the solar day, for it 
is not the sign of a succession of light and darkness : the sun's day 
does not go out, and the twilight of evening does not pale it. This 
world lives in a permanent light. 

It neither knows our seasons nor years, and the elements of our cal- 
endar cannot be applied to its astronomical role. It seems that the rapid 
succession of things which constitute our time, and the changing series 
of phenomena which we experience, do not fall to his lot; continuance 
and endless duration are his characteristics; and he is freed from count- 
ing for his individual personal life the successive ages which, on our globe, 
measure life and overwhelm it with their number. The great variety of 
nature separates it from the rank of the planetary world ; and it would 
be a profound subject of astonishment to an inhabitant of the earth if 
he were to visit a country so essentially distinct from ours, and to be 
able to establish a comparison between this strange world and his own. 



230 



WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 



The size of the sun exceeds the degree of our habitual measure- 
ments too much for us to hope to give a sufficient idea of it. In the 
matter of volumes, as in that of distances and times, the numbers too 
far surpass our ordinary conceptions to appeal to our minds, and every 
care that we take to represent them to ourselves remains almost 
sterile. Nevertheless, a comparison will be able to inspire at least a 
nearer idea of the size to which we refer. If we placed the terrestrial 
globe in the centre of the solar globe, like a kernel in the middle of a fruit, 

5;.^^^^^the distance of 



aS55«SSSS8Sg5S8S5SS%SaKaS«SS«aSSS«aS%454SS8SSSSSi: 



^ 



the moon would 
be included in 
the interior of 
the solar body; 
the moon itself 
would be ab- 
sorbed in it, and 
beyond the moon 
to the surface of 
the sun, follow- 
ing the same ra- 
dius, we should 
still have to tra- 
verse a distance 
of 200,000 miles. 
From the earth 
to the sun are 
reckoned 91 
millions of miles. 
It is on account 
of this great dis- 
^tance that this 
immense body 
'only appears to 

THE EARTH FLOATING IN SPACE. ^^^^^^^ ^ f^^^ 

in diameter; and this explains why the ancients, and Epicurus in par- 
ticular, did not believe it larger than that measure. This distance equally 
explains why it does not appear to us larger than the moon, which is 
only 240,000 miles away. From this it may reasonably be asked, how 
this distance from the sun to the earth could possibly be determined. 
The method is too complicated for us to explain it here in detail; but an 
idea may be given of it without exceeding the limits of this chapter. 
Between the sun and the earth there are two planets. Mercury and 




WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 231 

Venus : the latter has rendered the greatest service in the study of the 
distance which separates us from the sun. As its orbit (the circum- 
ference which it describes round ihe central body) is nearly on the 
•same plane as the earth's orbit, it happens from time to time that it 
passes between the sun and ourselves, and appears like a black spot 
crossing the luminous disk. This passage takes place at the singular 
interx'als of eight years, 113^ years — 8 years, iiS}4 years -f- 8 years. 
At these valuable periods, astronomers of all countries forget their 
nationality, and listening to each other like brothers, place themselves 
so as to observe the passage of Venus in dilTerent countries. Two 
observers situated in the stations most distant from each other, note 
the two points where the planet, seen from each of their stations, 
seems to be projected at the same moment on the solar disk. This 
measure gives them the angle formed by two lines starting from their 
stations, and crossing each other on Venus, and passing on to the 
sun. It is the measure of this angle, made by observers placed on all 
parts of the globe, which gives what is named the parallax of the sun. 

AN IMPERTINENT CLOUD. 

At the transit ot Venus, in 1761, a French astronomer, Le Gentil — 
liis name should have presei-ved him from such disappointments on the 
part of Venus — was curiously requited for his love of science and his 
disinterestedness. Sent to India by the Academic des Sciences, he 
embarked with arms and baggage to observe the passage of the planet 
at Pondicherry. His great activity and ardor could not conquer the 
chances of the sea voyage; he landed a few days after the phenomenon 
had taken place. The obstacles irritated him and increased his courage. 
He took the heroic resolution of remaining for eight years in the midst 
of .that unknown country, in order to compensate himself for his lost 
observation; he waited for the passage of 1769, and then made all 
desired arrangements to obtain a perfect observation. The year and 
the day at length arrived ! The sky was clear and no obstacle hindered 
his long resolution from at last receiving its reward. But, alas ! ex- 
actly at the moment when the black spot was about to enter on the 
solar disk, a small cloud formed in the atmosphere and remained before 
the sun until the moment when Venus left the disk, putting an end to 
the possibility of all observation. The astronomer again took the 
voyage to France with a stormy sea, which brought his days to a close. 
Le Gentil, of Galaisiere, died in 1792, after having written an account 
of his travels. It will be more than a hundred years before the world 
will have another opportunity to observe a transit of Venus. 

From considerations based on the magnetic action of the sun, we 



232 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

may be led to believe that its light is of the same nature as the electric 
light, only incomparably more powerful, seeing that the elements which 
we have at command are infinitely inferior to those commanded by 
nature. However bright our electric foci may be, however dazzling * 
their light, the whiteness of which astonishes us, when it is projected 
on the solar disk, the electric light has the appearance of a black spot. 

THE sun's amazing HEAT. 

The intensity of solar heat is not less difficult to conceive; the most 
intense of our furnaces, which rise to the temperature of white heat, 
does not give us a faint idea of it. However, the following comparisons 
will indicate its value. If we represent the sun under the form of in 
enormous globe built up of a million four hundred thousand terrestrial 
globes, and covered entirely with a stratum of coal fourteen miles 
thick, the heat which it pours out annually in space is equal to that 
which would be furnished by this stratum of flaming coal. This solar 
heat would also be capable of melting in one second a column of ice 
which would measure 1590 square miles at its base, and 192,000 miles 
high. 

It is curious to inquire how much this gigantic body weighs. When 
astronomers place the sun in one of the pans of the immense scales 
with which they determine the weight of the stars, it is necessary for 
them to put in the other one, 350,000 terrestrial globes like our own 
to restore equilibrium. 

Many of the chemical effects of the sun's light are, and long have 
been, familiar. Linen and cotton cloth exposed to it, for a length of 
time, as is well known, will be bleached ; and fabrics dyed of certain 
colors will be faded, or changed into a different shade. Yellow wax 
laid beneath the solar rays will be turned white ; and the colorless horn 
silver, in a few minutes, changed into a violet tint. And so of many 
other substances. 

THE SUN AN INCOMPARABLE ARTIST. 

If a piece of paper, or a finger, be dipped in lunar caustic, and then 
be exposed to the sun, it will quickly turn black. If initial letters or 
names be written on linen with what is called indelible ink, they will be 
at first quite pale, but by a short exposure to the sunlight they turn 
dark. If a sheet of paper be plunged into a solution of common salt, 
then dried, and again be dipped into a solution of silver, it becomes so 
sensitive to the action of the sunrays, that if ferns and leaves such as 
those represented in Fig. i , be placed upon it, and then exposed to the 
summer's sun, the uncovered part of the paper will turn black, while 
\hat beneath the ferns and leaves will remain white, presenting an exact 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 



233 



impress of the whole group, as in Fig. 2. Nothing can give a more 
beautiful picture of them ; the light works through the slender leaves, 
but not through the thicker and more compact stems, and thus copies 
all, even to the minutest veins. This process has been turned to im- 
portant practical purposes ; it has been of great service, for example, 
in military operations, where it was necessary to make quickly a copy 
of some map of which there was only one impression. If a duplicate 
had to be made by hand, it would require several days to accomplish 
it ; nor would it then have been as correct as that printed by the sun 
in the above manner. 

It is by the chemical action of the sun, as is well known, that the 
photographer brings forth his marvelous productions — productions 




Fig. I. WREATHS COPIED BY THE SUN. Fig. 2. 

which are not only of pleasing personal interest, but of the greatest 
practical value in art, science, and literature. By the simple action of 
the sunrays upon certain substances overspreading the surface of metal- 
lic or paper tablets, he can obtain an accurate likeness of any person, 
place, or thing he may desire. In this way he is enabled to preserve 
for us the lineaments of those who have benefitted their race by their 
learning, their skill or their bravery. By the agency of the very rays 
which illumine the countenance and reveal the brilliancy of the laugh- 
ing eye and the charm of the roseate cheek, he can at once secure for 
us a lifelike picture of the form and features we most admire and love. 
In the same manner he can copy the outlines and details of natural 
scenery with perfect fidelity. In his picture will be found every undu- 



234 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

lation of the landscape, every projecting rock, every sinuous stream, 
each spreading tree, each grazing ox, the peasant's home, the village 
spire, together with every other object and feature in the scene — these, 
all these, he can faithfully transfer to his plate, in all their varied and 
delicate shades, by the agency of the sunbeams which illuminate the 
whole. 

A PENCIL THAT PAINTS THE WORLD. 

The chemistry of the solar rays, in our day, has become a most im- 
portant auxiliary to nearly every branch of human study or investiga- 
tion. By its means the traveler is enabled to bring home accurate 
representations of the scenery, inhabitants, and productions he has 
witnessed in foreign climes; the geologist, to secure unerring delinea- 
tions ef the marvellous fossils of the flora and fauna he has discovered 
in the deep strata of the earth; the astronomer, to present the transient 
appearances of the eclipses he has observed in the heavens ; the meteo- 
rologist, to furnish a correct registry of his barometer and thermome- 
ter through each hour, each minute of the day; the antiquarian, to 
obtain a fac-simile of the ruined temples, broken statuary, and obscured 
inscriptions which he has found on the fields of ancient civilization and 
power; the botanist, to copy with nature's exactness the forms and 
parts of plants, the stamens, and corolla, and pistils, and pollen of 
flowers ; and the anatomist, to exhibit the various organs and functions 
of the body, both in their normal and abnormal conditions. 

As nothing is more general in its application, so nothing is more 
perfect and admirable in its execution, than the sunbeam. No object 
is too great, and none too minute for it to depict. It can give us large 
pictures, with every detail perfect and in its right proportion, of the 
minutest objects, such as insects and animalcula; and it can furnish us 
with microscopic pictures, equally correct, of objects huge or vast. 
This is achieved by the intervention of lenses that magnify or diminish 
the image. Microscopic photography is of great importance in relation 
to anatomic preparations, which quickly change and become decom- 
posed; it is also of very essential help in the study of fixed and perma- 
nent bodies. Jewelry, and even toys are sometimes made, containing 
minute photographs beneath small magnifying glasses. When these 
are held before the eye, small transparent images, some of them por- 
traits, some statues, and others writings, come into view in admirable 
perfection. Such things, however, serve rather for amusement than 
use. But there are cases where microscopic photography may prove 
of no little value and importance. It has been suggested that in this 
way the contents of ponderous volumes might be concentrated within 
a few square inches, and the books of a whole library be reduced within 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 235 

the capacity of a single drawer. Though nothing of this sort, as far as 
the author is aware, has thus far been done, yet the process has been 
employed for other ends under most interesting circumstances. 

EXTRAORDINARY METHOD OF CORRESPONDENCE. 

Professor Hermann Vogel relates that during the siege of Paris, in 
1870, the blockaded city held communication with the world outside 
by means of balloons and carrier pigeons. The first mode of com- 
munication was almost engrossed for political objects; the second only 
admitted the transmission of very minute writing. Letters, however 
condensed, could scarcely have been sent more than two or three at a 
time by a pigeon. In this case, microscopic photography presented a 
valuable means of concentrating many pages on a collodion film of only 
one square inch, and of expediting more than a dozen of such almost 
imponderable films packed in one quill. Dagrand, at Paris, who first 
prepared microscopic photographs, also set going the system of these 
pigeon despatches. All the correspondence which had to be dimin- 
ished was first set up in type, and printed together on a folio page. A 
microscopic photograph was made of this folio page, contained in a out 
the space of i yi square inches. This collodion film, with the image 
upon it, was then glazed over by pouring leather collodion over it; that 
is, collodion containing a solution of glycerine. This glucose collodion 
easily dries, separates from the picture, and forms a transparent film ; a 
membrane of this kind could contain as many as fifteen hundred de- 
spatches. At the place of arrival these membranes were unrolled, and 
then enlarged by the help of a magic lantern; a number of writers 
thereupon set to work to copy the enlarged despatches, and ultimately 
forwarded them to their respective addresses. Thus Paris corresponded, 
by the aid of photography, for six months with the world without, and 
even poor persons were able to let their relatives know that they still 
lived. 

MAKING A PICTURE IN A SECOND. 

Another marvellous fact pertaining to the chemistry of the solar 
rays is, the rapidity with which it produces its effects upon certain sub- 
stances. A new negative process has lately been discovered ; it con- 
sists in the use of a gelatine emulsion of silver bromide for the sensitive 
surface. With a plate thus prepared, a photograph may now be taken 
in one second ol time which it formerly took thirty seconds to secure ; 
and a plate can be prepared which needs an exposure of only one-six- 
tieth of a second, when a view is fairly lighted, to secure a soft and har- 
monious negative. Thus it appears that solar rays are capable of in- 
stantaneous chemical action, and of producing for us a perfect picture 



28(5 



WONDEKb Vt A3lK.oi>vjmif. 



of a man in full activity, or of an object in rapia motion. The likeness 
of an orator may be taken at the moment of his highest pitch of 
eloquence, giving not only hi? attitude and gesticulation, but the 
very expression of his features. A squadron of cavalry can be 
pictured as they advance with rushing speed to the deadly charge, 
each man, each horse appearing a distinct figure in the scene. Nay, 
a view has been taken in which the shadow and reflection of a swallow 
passing in the air over a pond were perfectly represented. How won- 
derful the workings of the laws of nature ! how closely related all its 
parts ! how admirably constituted every ray of the sun to move every 
atom to accomplish the purposes of Him who worketh all in all ! 

STARTLING CELESTIAL PHENOMENA. 

The total eclipse occurs when the moon is near to the earth, and 
when her distance from us is such that her apparent diameter is suffi- 
cient to cover the entire disk of 
the sun. This is an event of 
great interest to the astronomer, 
both on account of its short dura- 
tion and rare occurrence. The 
longest time an eclipse of the sun 
can be total is seven minutes ; but 
often it does not exceed three or 
four minutes. And it takes place 
at any one locality only at distant 
intervals ; for instance, at London, 
prior to the total eclipse of 17 15, 
no such phenomenon had been 
THE SUN ECLIPSED. visible for a period of 575 years. 

Among all the evolutions of the creation, visible to us, no occurrence 
is more striking or impressive than this. " A total eclipse of the sun," 
says Lockyer, " is at once one of the grandest and most awe-inspiring 
sights it is possible for man to witness. As the eclipse advances, but 
before the disk is wholly obscured, the sky grows of a dusky livid, or 
jurple, or yellow crimson color, which gradually gets darker and 
darker, and the color appears to run over large portions of the sky, 
irrespective of the clouds. The sea turns lurid red. This singular 
coloring and darkening of the landscape is quite unlike the approach 
of "dght, and gives rise to strange feelings of sadness. The moon's 
siicidow sweeps across the surface of the earth, and is even seen in the 
air ; the rapidity of its motion and its intenseness produce a feeling that 
something material is rushing over the earth at a speed perfectly fright- 
ful. All sense of distance is lost ; the faces of men assume a livid hue, 




WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 



237 



flowers close, fowls hasten to roost, cocks crow, birds flutter to the 
ground in fright, dogs whine, sheep collect together as if apprehending 
danger, horses and oxen lif. down, obstinately resisting the whip and 
the goad ; in a word, the whole animal world seems frightened out of 
its usual propriety." 

Celestial phenomena, also, attend a total eclipse, still more grand and 
imposing. A few seconds before the commencement of the total ob- 
scuration, the stars burst out, and surrounding the dark moon on all 
sides is seen a glorious halo, commonly of a silvery white light, which 
is called the corona. This radiates and extends beyond the moon, to 
a distance equal to her apparent diameter, and in some eclipses is ob- 
served to reach to a much greater distance. This luminous appendage 
is supposed to be the sun's atmosphere, which is not seen when the sun 
itself is visible, owing to its over- 
powering splendor. General Myer 
gives the following description of 
the corona, as observed by him 
from the summit of White Top 
Mountain, Virginia, 5530 feet 
above the level of the sea, this 
elevated station being chosen in 
order to escape the smoke and 
haze which generally prevail in 
lower regions : " The eclipse pre- 
sented, during the total obscura- 
tions, a vision magnificent beyond 
description. As a centre stood the 
full and intensely black disk of the 
moon, surrounded by the aureola of a soft bright light, through which 
shot out, as if from the circumference of the moon, straight, massive, 
silvery rays, seeming distinct and separate from each other, to a dis- 
tance of two or three diameters of the lunar disk, the whole spectacle 
showing as upon a background of diffused rose-colored light. This 
light was most intense, and extended farthest, at about the centre of 
the lower limb, the position of the southern pi eminence. The silvery 
rays were longest and most prominent at four points of the cirv 
cumference, two upon the upper and two upon the lower portion, 
apparently equidistant from each other, giving the spectacle a quadri- 
lateral shape." 

Great changes in the solar prominences, as a rule, take place only 
very slowly, or quite imperceptibly. In some cases, however, the 
change in the form of a prominence is so extraordinary^ and occurs 




REMARKABLE CORONA, 



238 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

with such rapidity, that it can only be ascribed to extremely violent 
agitations in the upper portions of the solar atmosphere, compared 
with which the cyclonic otorms, occasionally agitating the earth's at- 
mosphere, sink into insignificance. 

Professor Respighi is of the opinion that the solar prominences are 
of an eruptive origin and of a gaseous nature, and that electric action 
in some form is concerned in producing these eruptions. He observed 
some prominences that exceeded three minutes, or ten times the earth's 
diameter, in height ; and one prominence that was not less than twenty 
times the earth's diameter, or 160,000 miles in altitude. He also no- 
ticed that the formation of a prominence is usually preceded by the 
appearance of a rectilinear jet, either vertical or oblique, and very bright 
and well defined. This jet rising to a great height, is seen to bend 
back again, falling toward the sun like the jets of our fountains, and 
presently the sinking matter is observed to assume the shape of gigan- 
tic trees, more or less rich in branches and foliage. Gradually the 
whole sinks down upon the sun, sometimes forming isolated clouds 
before reaching the solar surface. It is in the upper portions of such 
prominences that the most remarkable and rapid transformations are 
witnessed; but a great difference is observed in the rate with which 
prominences change in figure. Their duration, too, is very variable. 
Some develop and disappear in a few minutes, while others remain 
visible for several days. He considers that the sharply defined bases 
of the eruptive jets prove that the eruption takes place through some 
compact substance, forming a species of solar crust. He also holds 
that the enormous velocity with which these gaseous masses rush 
through the solar atmosphere implies that the latter is of exceeding 
tenuity. 

SINGULAR OUTBURST. 

Professor Young, of Dartmouth College, by means of an instrurnent 
called " telespectroscope," witnessed the most remarkable outburst from 
the sun ever yet seen by man. " On the 7th of September, 1871, be- 
tween 12.30 and 2 p. M.," he says, " there occurred an outburst of solar 
energy remarkable for its sudden violence. Just at noon I had beer- 
examining with the telespectroscope an enormous protuberance of 
hydrogen close on the eastern limb of the sun. It had remained with 
very little change since the preceding noon — a long, low, quiet-looking 
cloudj not very dense or brilliant, nor in any way remarkable except 
for its size. It was made up mostly of filaments nearly horizontal, and 
floated above the chromatosphere with its lower surface at a height of 
some 15,000 miles, but was connected with it, as is usually the case, 
by three or four vertical columns brighter and more active than the 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 



239 



rest. Lockyer compares such masses to a banyau gioVc It was 
about 100,000 miles long by 54,000 high. 

"At 12.30, when I was called a^vay for a few minutes, there was no 
indication of what was about to happen, except that one of the co»> 
necting stems at the southern extremity of the cloud had grown con- 
siderably brighter, and was curiously bent to one side; and near the 
base of another at the northern end a little brilliant lump had devel- 
oped itself, shaped much like a summer thunder-head. The annexed 
figure represents the prominence at this time, a being the thunder-head. 
What was my surprise, then, on returning in less than half an hour, to 
tind that in the meantime the whole thing had been literally blown to 
shreds by some inconceivable up-rush from beneath. In place of the 
quiet cloud I had left, the air, if I may use the expression, was filled 
with flying dcbi'is — a mass of detached vertical fusiform filaments, 
bnghter and closer together where the pillars had formerly stood, and 
rapidly ascending. 

"When I first looked, 
some of them had al- 
ready reached a height 
of nearly 100,000 miles, 
and while I watched 
them they rose with a 
motion almost percepti- 
ble to the eye, until in 
ten minutes the upper- 
most were more than banyan grove on the sun. 
200,000 miles above the solar surface. This was ascertained by careful 
measurement. The velocity of ascent also, 166 miles per second, is con- 
siderably greater than anything hitherto recorded. A general idea of its 
appearance when the filaments attained their greatest elevation may be 
obtained from the accompanying cut (fig. i). As the filaments rose 
they gradually faded away like a dissolving cloud, and at 1.15 only a 
few filmy wisps, with some brighter streamers low down near the 
chromatosphere, remained to mark the place. 

" But in the meanwhile the httle thunder-head, before alluded to, had 
grown and developed wonderfully into a mass of rolling and ever- 
vhanging flame, to speak according to appearance. First it was 
crowded down, as it were, along the solar surface (fig. 3, a)', later it 
rose almost pyramidally 50,000 miles in height; then its summit was 
drawn out into long filaments and threads which were most curiously 
rolled backwards and downwards, like the volutes of an Ionic capital 
(fig. 2); and finally it faded away, and by 2.30 had vanished like the 




240 



WOI'DERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 



other. The figures inserted in this paragraph show it in its full 
development ; the former having been sketched at i .40, and the latter 
at 1.55. 

" The whole phenomenon suggested most forcibly the idea of an 
explosion under the great prominence, acting mainly upwards, but also 
in all directions outwards, and then after aa interval followed by a 
corresponding in-rush. The same afternoon a portion of the chro- 

Fig. I. Fig. 2. 




EXPLOSIVE PHENOMENA IN THE SUN. 

matosphere on the western limb of the sun was for several hours in a 
state of unusual brilliancy and excitement. 

buch are some of the marvelous phenomena made known to us by 
astronomical science. We can say with Byron in his brilliant apos' 

trophe : 

Glorious orb ! the idol 
Of early nature and the vigorous race 
Of undiseased mankind, the giants' sons 
Of the embrace of angels with a sex 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 241 

More beautiful than they which did draw down 

The erring spirits who can ne'er return. — 

Most glorious orb ! that wert a worship ere 

The mystery of thy making was revealed ! 

Thou earliest minister of the Almighty, 

Which gladdened, on their mountain-tops, the hearts 

Of the Chaldean shepherds till they poured 

Themselves in orisons? Thou material God! 

And representative of the Unknown — 

Who chose thee for His shadow ! Thou chief star. 

Centre of many stars ! which make'st our earth 

Endurable, and temperest the hues 

And hearts of all who walk within tliy rays ! 

Sire of the seasons! Monarch of the climes, 

And those who dwell in them ! for near or far, 

Our inborn spirits have a tint of thee, 

Even as our outward aspects : thou dost rise, 

And shine, and set in glory. 

A fine family of planets is that over which the sun presides, and an 
accurate description of these will be of interest to the reader. 

MERCURY. 

Above the sun, in the west, when that radiant body sets, or again 
before its rising in the east, is seen sometimes a small white star, 
slightly tinged with red. The Greeks called it Apollo, god of day, and 
Mercury, the god of thieves, who take advantage of the night to com- 
mit their misdeeds ; for they saw in it two different planets, one a morn- 
ing and the other an evening one, as they did also for a long time in the 
case of Venus, the Egyptians and Indians doing the same. The first 
gave it the names of Set and Horus ; the second those of Boudda and 
Rauhineya; names which bring to mind, like the preceding, the divini- 
ties of day and night. The Latins who, however, employed them- 
selves veiy little with astronomy, in this respect remained in doubt. It 
has been only in later times that the identity of these two stars which, 
like Castor and ■ Pollux, to which they are assimilated, never appear 
together, has been proved; its evening name, Mercury, was the one 
retained. 

Being the first planet of the system, Mercury always remains ab- 

iorbed in the royal radiation of the prince of day; also, like a courtier, 

t is deprived of its individuality and blended in the personality of the 

ruling star. It gains nothing and loses much, seeing that it had not 

the honor of being known to the founders of astronomy. Copernicus 

despaired of ever seeing it: "I fear," said this great man, "that I shall 

descend to the tomb without having seen the planet." And, indeed, 

he who had transformed the system of the world, and taken in hand 

each of the planets to place them round the sun, died without having 
16 



24i: 



WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 



seen the first amongst them. Galileo was able to observe it, thanks to the 
glasses which he had invented, but it could not be said that he under- 
stood it sufficiently, as it was impossible for him ever to distinguish its 
phases. The adversaries of the new system opposed the first astrono- 
mers, Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, on account of the absence of 
phases in the planets Mercury and Venus. "For," said they," if these 
planets revolved around the sun, they would change their aspect to 
our eyes, as the moon does, according as we see in front, in profile, of 







CELEBRATED ASTRONOMERS. 

COPERNICUS. 
GALILEO. ISAAC NEWTON. 



KEPLER. 



TYCHO BRAKE. 



m rear, the illumined part, the side in fact which they turn towards the 



sun. 



Copernicus and his colleagues replied, "We do not distinguish any 
phases, it is true; but if it only requires them in order that you should 
adopt our system, God will cause that there may be some." Indeed 
there were some. By the observation of the irregularities visible in 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 243 

the interior of the crescent or quarter, it has been observed that Mer- 
cury is rugged with high mountains, higher than those of the earth, 
although Mercury is a much smaller globe than ours. The existence 
of a denser and higher atmosphere than ours has been suspected. In 
the middle of the last century, one of the numerous romancers who 
feigned voyages to the planets, pretended to know that the mountains 
of Mercury were all crowned with beautiful gardens, in which grew 
naturally not only the most succulent fruits which served as food to 
the Mercunans, but also the greatest variety of dishes. It is better, 
perhaps, to believe this than to think with Fontenelle, that the inhabi- 
tants of Mercury are all mad, and that their brains are burned with the 
violent heat which the sun pours upon their heads. But until an au- 
thentic voyager has made us sufficiently acquainted on this head, w& 
will confine ourselves to the astronomical elements of the planet. It 
revolves at a distance of 35 millions of miles from the sun ; its diameter 
is 2960 miles; its day is 24 hours, 3 minutes, 28 seconds long; its yea'*, 
87 days, 23 hours, 14 minutes; and its seasons, 22 days only; its mass, 
compared to that of the earth, is only ^y^; its density is three times 
mor than ours, and bodies which fall on its suiface travel 7.45 feet 
during the first second of fall ; and, lastly, it receives six times and ii, 
half more light and heat than the earth does. 

VENUS. 

Thou little sparkling star of even, 
Thou gem upon an azure heaven 
How swiftly will I soar to thee 
When this imprisoned soul is fret 

The young poetess who sang this charming song, Maria Lucrccia 
Davidson, escaped from her earthly prison towards her well-beloved 
star when she had scarcely seen her seventeenth spring blossom forth. 
Some ill-disposed minds have asserted that although Venus is beautful 
afar, it is frightful on a nearer view. We fancy our young and amiable 
readers are not of this opinion. 

Indeed all the magnificence of light and day which we enjoy on the 
earth, Venus possesses in a higher degree. Like our globe, it is sur- 
rounded by a transparent atmosphere, in the midst of which are com- 
bined thousands and thousands of shades of light. Clouds rise from 
the stormy ocean, and transport into the sky, snowy, silvery, golden 
and purple tints. -At morning and evening, when the dazzling orb of 
day, twice as large as it appears from the earth, lifts its enormous disk 
at the east or inclines towards the west, the twilight unfolds its splendors 
and charms. From here we can be spectators of this distant spectacle; 
for we distinctly see the daybreak and the close of day in the plains of 



244 



WONDERS OF THli WHOLE WORLD, 



Veniis. Day and night are of nearly the same duration as on the earth ; 
the diurnal period of rotation of the planet is twenty-three hours, 
twenty-one minutes, seven seconds ; it is consequently thirty-five min- 
utes less than ours. Its year is two hnndred and twenty-four days. Its 
mountains are much higher than ours. They have been measured at the 
period when Venus presents itself to us as a crescent. The inequalities 
which are noticed in the interior of the crescent are the highest points 
of the surface which still receive the sun's rays after these have left the 
plain. The height can be concluded from the time that these light- 
points take to disappear. We have just spoken of Venus as a crescent. 
Like Mercury, this planet is situated between the earth and the sun; 
Und the circle which it describes during its year is comprised in the 
lircle which the earth describes round the same body. Hence it fol- 
lows that at certain epochs the planet Venus is exactly between us and 
the sun; and then it presents its dark part to us, as its illuminated por- 




CRESCENT AND SPOTS OF VENUS. 

tion is naturally on the side of the sun. At other times, when it is to 
the right or left of the sun, it presents only a quarter. Lastly, when 
Venus is on the other side of the sun, it presents its entire illuminated 
portion to us. 

The phases of Venus were seen for the first time by Galileo in the 
month of September, 1610, who beheld this spectacle with a joy impos- 
sible to describe, seeing that it eloquently testified in favor of the system 
of Copernicus, showing that like the earth and moon, the planets 
receive their light from the sun. When we say that these phases were 
for the first time seen in the month of September, 1610, you must not 
conclude that they did not exist before that epoch, but you must under- 
stand, that before that year no one had turned the telescope to the 
planet, and that with the naked eye. these phases are imperceptible. 

Galileo's riddle. 

According to the custom of the period, the illustrious astronomer 
disguised his discovery under an anagram, to maintain the authenticity 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 245 

of ti«is discover}' in case of rivalry, and to give himself time to continue 
his observations and to perfect them. He finished a letter with this 
phrase : " Hcec iviniatir'a a me jmii frustra legiintur, d. y." which 
means, " These things unripened and as yet hidden to others, are at 
length read by me." 

Under this cry^ptogram, it woirid be difficult to discover the idea of 
the phases of Venus. Our fathers were very ingenious, and in the 
present time certain discoveries would not have been so greatly can- 
tested, if astronomers had sometimes used the same ruse. In this 
phrase there are thirty-four letters. By placing them in another order, 
we get these words, in which the whole discovery is elegantly inscribed: 
" Cynthice figiiras emulatiir mater Aiiwncm." " The mother of the 
Loves puts on the phases of the moon.' 

Galileo was very cunning. Two months later, Father Castelli asking 
if Venus had phases, he replied, " My state of health is very bad, and 
I find it better to be in my bed than in the dew." It was only two 
days before the end of the year that he announced the above discovery. 

This globe presents the greatest semblance to our own, and it has 
nearly the same astronomical elements, size, volume, weight and 
-density ; only it is much nearer to the sun than we are. From the 
commencement of ancient poetry, its position near the sun, which 
causes it to appear at sunrise and sunset, attracted contemplative minds 
towards it, In the middle ages, a worthy father took an ecstatic voyage 
in the heavens, and in Venus saw only young people of ravishing 
beauty, living in the midst of perfect happiness ; in his sight, these 
were the guiding spirits of the planet Venus, for in olden times it was 
believed that a legion of angels or genii presided over the direction of 
each of the heavenly spheres. 

MARS. 

All the maledictions of mortals have fallen on Saturn and Mars- 
Beginning with war, that scourge of humanity of which it will have 
great trouble to rid itself, all public misfortunes caused by power have 
been attributed to Mars, which, if it knew what the earth thought of 
it, ought to regard us with an evil eye. It is, nevertheless, innocent of 
all these calunmies, and we ought not to speak ill of it, presenting, as 
it does, most resemblance to ourselves. Indeed the world of Mars 
resembles the earth so much, that if we happened one day to be travel- 
ing there and lost our way," it would be almost impossible to recognize 
which of the two were our planet. Without the moon, which would 
charitably remove our uncertainty, we should run a great risk of 
arriving amongst the inhabitants of Mars, expecting to descend into 



246 



WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 



the United States, or some other terrestrial quarter. Indeed, the 
planet Mars in our telescopes presents the same aspect as the earth 
must do to the inhabitants of Venus ; a circular disk, rather flatten-'id, 
turning on itself in about twenty-four hours, furrowed from time to 
time by fleeting clouds, diversified with here dark and there light plaiits ; 
revolving obliquely on an axis enveloped with an atmosphere and with 
snow-covered poles. On this planet the seasons are nearly of the sarnie 
intensity as our own, but their duration is twice as long ; for Mars only 
accomplishes its annual revolution around the sun in i year, 321 days, 
and 22 hours, or i year, 10 months and 21 days. 




SOLAR SYSTEM. 

We may notice certain differences between the aspec of Mars and 
our own world. Whereas the earth seen at a distance must appear 
tinted with green, on account of the color of its atmosphere, its vege- 
tation and waters. Mars is shaded with red, and it is this shade which 
gives it the reddish light with which it is seen to shine. Doubtless 
this characteristic color is produced by the dominant coloring of its 
surface ; either its soil is thus colored like that of our deserts, or its seas, 
its vegetation, or the vapors rising into its atmosphere, are chiefly 
clothed with this shade. Nevertheless, the poles always p^erferve their 
brilliant light. In 1837, it onoe happened that Mars was, during the 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMV. 247 

observations, completely darkened by a cloud, with the exception of the 
poles which stood out distinctly. 

Removed from the sun to a mean distance of 1 39 millions of miles, 
and encircling the earth's orbit in that which it describes round the 
central body, there are certain periods where these planets are very 
near together; that is, when they are both on the same side of their 
path with regard to the sun. Sometimes they are not more than 48 
millions of miles distant from each other. Mars has two satellites, 
which have been discovered at a comparatively recent date. 

The conjunction of two planets is the point of their orbits where 
they are on the same side of the sun, and are the nearest possible to 
each other; the term opposition is given to the opposite point of their 
paths, when they are on opposite sides of the sun, except in the case 
of Mercury and Venus. In olden times these positions greatly ex- 
ercised the sagacity of horoscope-seekers, and human destinies received 
fancied predictions, according as the god of war was in coniunction in 
such and such a sign of the zodiac. The interior planets, Venus and 
Mercury, whose orbits are enclosed in that of the earth, have no oppo- 
sition, but they have two conjunctions; the superior, when the planet 
is beyond the sun and in one right line; the inferior, when it is situated 
between the sun and the earth. The exterior planets, those which in- 
close the terrestrial orbit, and of which Mars is the first, have only the 
superior conjunction. 

At about 80 millions of miles, beyond the planet Mars, between the 
orbit of this planet and that of Jupiter, we meet with the group of 
small planets, of which we have already spoken. These are very little 
worlds, if even they deserve this name, which have scarcely the extent 
of a province, or even a department. They gravitate in this zone in 
considerable numbers, for there may exist several thousands. Perhaps 
they are debris of a larger world, shattered by some catastrophe; per- 
haps they have been formed in this region of space in the fragmentary 
state in w^hich we now see them. 

Putting aside the title of original greatness of these asteroids, and 
the fate which attends them, let us traverse their colony, and beyond it 
get near the most magnificent of the worlds of our system. 

JUPITER. 

She said : 
Oh ! that it were my doom to be 
The spirit of yon beauteous star. 
Dwelling up there in purity, 
Alone, as all such bright things are : — 
My sole employ to pray and shine; 
To light my censer at the sun ! 

Thomas Moorf.. 



248 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

The orb of Jupiter is more bulky than all the other planets of our 
system : it is only a thousand times smaller than the sun, which makes 
it, if we remember the volume of that radiant body, from fourteen to 
fifteen hundred times larger than the terrestrial globe. Also, although 
it revolves in an orbit nearly 475 millions of miles distant from the sun, 
and receives a much fainter light than that received by the earth, its 
size is evidenced by the light with which it shines during our starry 
nights, equal and often superior to that with which Venus shines. 
Jupiter is therefore reckoned among the most beautiful objects of the 
heavens. As it is always in the zodiac, and when Venus is visible in 
the evening, it is always in the west, it is easily recognized. At what- 
ever period of the year, therefore, you see a very bright star, either in 
the east, or high up among the zodiacal constellations, you may he 
certain that it is Jupiter. 

A BEAUTIFUL WORLD. 

This planet is a charming one, so far at least as we are able to jtrdge 
from afar and without going there. To begin with, a continual spring 
rejoices its surface. If it is ornamented with flowers, which we do not 
doubt, though we know not of what these flowers consist, they do not 
only survive " the span of a morning," as our roses do, but live much 
longer. Scarcely have the oldest begun to dry up and fade but they 
are replaced by lovely buds, opening before the first have died away. 
Not only is the Jovian year equal to twelve of ours, but it is scarcely 
known when the yearly period begins or ends. 

Then Jupiter presents a surface 126 times more extensive than the 
terrestrial surface. We speak of surface, not volume,. Now, a hundred 
and twenty-six earths placed side by side, and on which the human 
race would be able to spread itself at will, would constitute a very fine 
country. We ought, then, ytot to doubt that such an empire has been 
formed to serve as an abode for a race of beings, venerable and worthy 
of our respect. We reason thus of Jupiter, because we have had the 
necessary means to measure and appreciate it at its just value. But it 
is necessary to add something to complete the comparison between 
this world and our own. 

Because we find, by observation of the Jovian planet, excellent rea- 
sons for believing that its inhabitants are very favored, it does not follow 
that the aforesaid inhabitants make similar reflections on us. There is 
a very good reason why they do not occupy themselves with us— they 
are probably not acquainted with our existence. And, indeed, if ever, 
at a future time, more or less distant, you should happen to inhabit 
Jupiter, you would have greai; trouble to discover your old country. 
To do so you would have to rise u little before the sun (and mark 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 



249 



there are only live hours from the setting to the rising of this body on 
Jupiter) and five or six minutes before the rising look to the east for a 
veiy small white s;tar. With good eyes, you perhaps would perceive 
it. In this case, you would know that our earth exists. Again, you 
would make the same search six months later, at the west, a few mo- 
ments after the setting of the sun. Such is the condition of the 
inhabitants of Jupiter with regard to us. They can never see the earth 
during the night, although it is precisely in the middle of clear nights 
that we are best able to observe this magnificent planet. 

If you were to take a journey to the planet Saturn, which is scarcely 
more than 900 millions of miles from us, you would feel on approach- 
ing it an unspeakable astonishment, to which certainly no sentiment of 
surprise felt on the earth can be compared. Imagine an immense 
globe, not only of the size of the earth, but as large as 734 earths put 
together. It revolves on an axis 
with such rapidity, that in spite of 
its size it accomplishes its diurnal 
rotatory movement in about ten 
hours. Around it, at 20,000 miles 
distance, above its equator, an im- 
mense ring, flat and relatively very 
thin, surrounds it on all sides. This 
ring is followed by a second, and this 
one by a third. Now this system 
of multiple rings is only a few miles 
thick, whilst its diameter is 166,000 
miles. They do not remain immov- 
able, but are carried along with a circular movement round the planet, 
this movement being of still greater rapidity than that of the planet itself 
The domain of the Saturnine world is not confined to this. Beyond 
the ring, eight moons are seen revolving in the heavens around this 
strange system ; the nearest of these satellites is separated from the 
planet's centre by a distance of 1 20,000 miles ; the most remote has 
an orbit of 2,293,000 miles from the centre of the planet. Saturn then 
governs a system which measures not less than four and a half millions 
of miles in diameter. 

By the side of this world the earth makes but a poor figure, 
and Micromegas, in the fable, was to be pardoned when on coming 
out of Saturn he mistook the earth for a mole-hill. Its years 
are thirty times longer than ours ; of its seasons each lasts seven 
years and four months ; a change remarkably like that which 
distinguishes our own diversifies them; a regenerating spring suc- 




THE PLANET SATURN. 



'Z50 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

ceeds tne rigor of winter; summer and autumn pour forth their 
alternate fruits. 

URANUS. 

On the 13th of March, 1781, between ten and eleven in the evening, 
a quondam organist of HaHfax, who had himself made the best tele- 
scope then in existence, observed the small stars of the constellation of 
the Twins, with a telescope of nine feet focal length, and a magnifying 
power of 227. During his observation he perceived that one of the 
stars presented an unusual diameter. Astonished and desiring to prove 
the fact, he took an eyepiece magnifying double, and found that the 
diameter oi the star increased whilst that of the others remained the 
same. More and more surprised, he fetched his magnifying power 
of 932, being quadruple that of the first, and again observed it. The 
mysterious star was still larger. From that time, he no longer doubted ; 
this was a new body, not a star. He continued the following days, and 
noticed that it slowly moved among the others. It was then a comet. 
Herschel described it to the Royal Society in a paper entitled, 
" Account of a Comet" ; and the scientific world of all countries regis- 
tered this new cometary body, and set about observing it in order to 
determine its orbit. If Herschel had directed his telescope towards 
the constellation of the Twins eleven days sooner, said Arago, the real 
movement of Uranus would have escaped him, for this planet was on 
the second at one of its stationary points. It may be seen by this 
remark on what the greatest astronomical discoveries depend. 

The name of the astronomer was then so little known that it is found 
written in every way; Mersthel, Herthel, Hermstel, Horochelle. 
Nevertheless, the discovery of a new comet was an event important 
enough to induce a study of the new body. Laplace, Mechain, Bosco- 
wich, and Lexell, endeavored to determine the orbit along which it 
moved. Many months elapsed before the astronomers guessed that it 
was a real planet; and it was not until after having observed that all the 
imagined orbits for the pretended comet were soon contradicted by ob- 
servation, and that it probably had a circular orbit, much more distant 
from the sun than Saturn, until then the boundary of the system, that 
they agreed to regard it as a planet. Still this was but a provisional 
agreement. It Avas, indeed, more difficult than was thought thus to 
increase unscrupulously the family of the sun. Many reasons of pro- 
priety were opposed to it. Old ideas are tyrannical. It had been the 
custom for so long to regard the venerable Saturn as keeper of the 
frontiers, that it required a great effort to determine upon withdrawing 
these frontiers, and guarding them by a new world. It happened in 
this as in the discovery of the small planets situated between Mars and 



WONDERS OF ASTRONOMY. 251 

Jupiter. Two years before this discovery was made, js^epler imagined, 
for the harmony of the world, a large planet in this space, and the most 
frivolous and senseless considerations were urged against it. For 
instance, they reasoned : " There are only seven openings in the head, 
the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils, and the mouth ; there are 
only seven metals, there are but seven days in the week; therefore there 
are but seven planets," etc. Considerations like these, and others no 
less imaginar)^, often hinder the progress of astronomy. 

When William Herschel, having been present as a spectator at the 
debates created by his discovery, came to the belief that his comet was 
a planet situated at the confines of our system, he claimed the right, 
which was indisputably his, of christening the new star Animated by 
a lawful motive of gratitude towards George III., who had appreciated 
his astronomical worth and given him an annual pension, he at first 
proposed the name of Georgium Sidus, George's star, as Galileo had 
called the satellites of Jupiter discovered by him, the Medici's stars, 
and as Horace had said, Julium Sidus. Others proposed the name of 
Neptune, in order to preserve the mythological character; Saturn would 
be thus found between his two sons, Jupiter and Neptune. Others 
added to Neptune the name of George III., others again proposed 
Astrae, considering the goddess of Justice was as far as possible from 
the earth ; Cybele, mother of the gods ; Uranus, the most ancient of all 
to whom reparation was due after so many hundred years of neglect. 
Lalande suggested Herschel's name to immortalize the discoverer. 
These two denominations prevailed. For a long time the planet bore 
the name of Herschel, but custom has since declared for the mytholo- 
gical appellation of Uranus. The discovery of Uranus has increased 
the radius of the solar system from 872 millions of miles to 1753 
millions. Compared with the preceding, this planet is not very large, 
for it is scarcely eighty-two times more bulky than the earth. Its 
seasons last twenty-one years, of ours, and its years eighty-four years 
and a quarter. Around it revolve eight satellites, six of which Her 
schel himself discovered. 

NEPTUNE. 

The world which here marks the frontiers of the system, is situated 
at such a distance from the sun, that the light and heat which it receives 
from.it are thirteen hundred times less than that with which the earth 
ts enriched, so that no great difference can be noticed between the day 
and night of this distant planet, and to it the solar disk is nearly re- 
duced to the smallness of the stars. 

2746 millions of miles is the distance which separates this world from 
the sun. Until the time of its discovery, the frontiers of the planetary 



452 WONDERS OF THE WHOLE WORLD. 

system already augmented by the addition of Uranus, were confined 
to an orbit of 1753 millions of miles in radius. Does, this, then, imply 
that these are the utmost limits, and that analysis will not be able to go 
further and add fresh members to the already increasing family of the 
sun ? No. When observations spreading over a long series of years 
shall have been made, and compared with each other, the universal law 
of gravitation by which the existence of this planet was known before 
ever being perceived in the field of the telescope, will prove the exist- 
ence of others if others exist, which is probable ; and the progress of 
optics following equally the progress of astronomy will give to the 
visual power, again magnified, the power to discover such distant 
planets which will, doubtless, be of the sixteenth or seventeenth magni- 
tude. 

Imagine a body a hundred times larger than the earth carried into 
the gloomy deserts of space to the distance of the Neptunian orbit. 
It floats, isolated, in the obscurity of space, following an immense but 
purely ideal curve, and which exists only in theory in the decree of 
eternal laws. It follows this curve, and revolves on itself without ever 
deviating from its path. To finish its immense route and return to its 
starting point, it requires 164 years. It will ret^un and again pass 
through this mysterious point of space, which it passed nearly two 
centuries before. What power moves it? What hand guides this 
blind body through the night of the distant regions, and what causes 
it to describe this harmonious curve ? It is universal attraction. 

Instead of following a regular ellipse round the sun, the planet 
Uranus underwent, from some unknown cause, a perturbation, which 
.'etarded its theoretical path, and extended its circular curve towards a 
certain point, as if an atrractive cause had seduced the traveller from 
its path, and had made it deviate from its proposed route. It was cal- 
culated that, in order to produce at this point an attraction of such 
intensity, it was necessary that there should be on that side of the sys- 
tem beyond Uranus, a planet of a certain mass, and at a certain distance. 
Two astronomers, the one French, the other English, set to work at 
the same time in this research. They discovered the disturbing cause 
theoretically, and observers directed their telescopes to the spot thus 
indicated by theory. They were not long in actually discovering the 
body near the spot pointed out, and they were able to announce to the 
world the most brilliant confirmation of universal gravitation. 



97 

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